Washington: It could easily be mistaken for a mailbox, except that one side of it is riddled with air holes.
It’s a ‘baby box’ for parents who wish to anonymously give up their newborns. About a dozen European countries, as well as China, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea already use similar systems.
Indiana could be the first US state to install them, but the plan is facing stiff opposition from those who say it could keep the mother from receiving needed medical care.
“No shame, no blame, no names,” said Monica Kelsey, a firefighter and medic who heads Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
Indiana already has a Safe Haven law allowing parents to anonymously leave their children at a hospital, fire station or police station.
But state representative Casey Cox, who drafted Baby Box legislation that was passed by the Indiana House of Representatives and awaits a vote in the state Senate, noted that parents were sometimes “unaware” of the safe havens.
“The sheer anxiety of the face-to-face interaction required by an existing safe haven may cause some troubled parents to refuse to utilize the program,” said Cox, a Republican.
Kelsey, who worked with Cox on the bill, sees the boxes as an “extension” of the Safe Haven law. Her mother, a rape victim, abandoned her at a hospital.
The law’s proponents promise that the boxes will be climate-controlled, and be equipped with an alarm system so that the abandoned baby can quickly receive care.
Cox also said that his proposed baby boxes are an “alternative to abandonment and abortion,” fiercely opposed by conservatives.
But others say the legislation would create an unsettling precedent.
