Safe Haven Baby Boxes: A Safe Alternative To Abortion
Would you place your baby in a box knowing you’d never see your child again? What if that was the best option?
Unfortunately, in modern American culture, unintended pregnancy happens all too often. The CDC reported in May of this year that while unintended pregnancies are on the decline, recent statistics still show that for every 1,000 women aged 15-44, approximately 35 are faced with unwanted pregnancy.
Considering this, some groups such as Planned Parenthood push abortion, believing that the lifestyle of the mother outweighs any value a child has while unborn. They go so far as to ask if an unborn child is truly human or simply a fetus, which is an unborn child by definition. So, in a culture that promotes abortion, how can those who value life but are faced with less-than-optimal circumstances do the right thing in the sight of God?
A few years ago, I discovered Safe Haven Baby Boxes, an organization that offers a solution for women who choose life but feel they cannot care for their child. This organization works with local and state governments to equip and train local firefighters, police and EMT stations with Baby Boxes. These boxes, which have a hatch with instructions facing the outside and a bassinet inside, are easily accessible from inside the chosen station and let out a silent alarm when opened.
After the bassinet is retrieved, the baby is immediately given any necessary medical attention by the emergency department and put up for foster care or adoption. In addition, after the surrender of each child, a press meeting is held to thank the unknown parent for their choice to choose life and assure that the child is going to a loving home. This method’s anonymous nature has made it popular in the states where these boxes can be found.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes’ founder, Monica Kelsey, has stressed the importance of an anonymous method of safe surrender through her organization’s newsletter and more recent YouTube channel. She explains that guilt or fear of recognition can lead to child abandonment, which can not only place the child in imminent danger, but also place the parent behind bars.
According to its website, Safe Haven has facilitated over 150 safe surrenders, received more than 9,000 calls from every state via its free 24/7 hotline and referred over 500 women to crisis pregnancy centers. In August, Safe Haven reported that its newest safe surrender took place in South Dakota, where an anonymous woman was redirected to a nearby hospital through the hotline and both she and her baby were handled with expert care from hospital staff.
In the organization’s YouTube channel, Kelsey explains her own story of abandonment and how it prompted her to create Safe Haven’s mission. Safe Haven’s show, titled “Baby Boxes,” also discusses the creation of each unique box and the experiences — good and bad — that she and her team faced when starting Safe Haven.
While Virginia does have all the laws in place to have a Baby Box of its own, it is currently without one. Instead, the closest box can be found in Jefferson, North Carolina.
It isn’t easy to choose life when faced with desperate circumstances or when under the pressure of today’s culture, but that’s why Safe Haven Baby Boxes and similar organizations exist: to offer the same hope and love to all that Jesus gives us.
McKinnon is an opinion writer for the Liberty Champion.