The US has experienced a boost in the use of ‘safe haven baby boxes’.
Known as ‘baby boxes’ for babies to be anonymously dropped off for adoption. More than 12 states have passed laws permitting their use in the US.
Baby boxes have been promoted by certain sections of the pro-life movement in the US, the majority of which are in Indiana, where the movement was started by Monica Kelsey, who discovered that she had been abandoned two hours after she had been born.
The baby boxes provide a safe location where a parent giving up their baby for adoption pulls open a metal bin containing a temperature-controlled bassinet. Once shut, the box locks and an alarm is triggered to alert staff. Babies typically spend less than two minutes in the drop boxes before being rescued.
“Abandonments are happening everywhere, but people are not aware of it because it’s not happening in their backyard”
While the boxes have existed in Indiana for a number of years, a box at a fire station in Carmel has received three babies this year after being unused for three years previously.
Over the summer, three more babies have been left at drop boxes elsewhere in the state.
Ms Kelsey started the Safe Haven movement which promotes the use of these boxes.
Ms Kelsey is lobbying for the boxes to be introduced across the country and expects they will be installed in all 50 states within five years.
“Abandonments are happening everywhere, but people are not aware of it because it’s not happening in their backyard”, she said.
“We can all agree a baby should be placed in my box and not in a dumpster to die”, she told the New York Times.
“When a woman is given options, she will choose what’s best for her”, Ms. Kelsey added.
“And if that means that in her moment of crisis she chooses a baby box, we should all support her in her decision”.
The initiative has the support of at least two Supreme Court judges, Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito, who voted to overturn Roe vs Wade.
