A new Texas law that goes into effect in September allows parents in crisis to surrender a baby with complete anonymity using a newborn safety device, known as a Baby Box.

Under the law, Baby Boxes can be installed in places that offer emergency services and are staffed 24 hours, such as fire and EMS stations, police stations and medical facilities. The boxes are temperature controlled and sound an audible alarm inside the facility but not outside, which gives the mother time to safely walk away, according to Monica Kelsey, founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, the non-profit organization that makes the boxes.

“Now that the law has passed, we’re getting a ton of calls from Texas,” said Kelsey, a retired firefighter in Indiana who discovered she had been abandoned as a baby.

Each Baby Box costs $11,000 and often is paid for by community members or other sponsors, according to Kelsey.

Safe Havens: Medical facilities, police and fire stations

In 1999, Texas became the first state to enact a Safe Haven law, known as the Baby Moses law. It allowed parents to safely relinquish a child to qualified emergency personnel without threat of prosecution. Today, all 50 states have some form of State Haven law.

The original law required the child be left in the care of an employee at the fire station or similar emergency service, but Kelsey said that still presented a problem for some mothers, particularly if they might be recognized by emergency workers. Adding Baby Boxes to the law gives mothers an option.

“If you can’t walk into that firehouse and hand that child to a person for whatever your reason is, or there’s no way you can parent this child, I don’t want this child in a trashcan,” Kelsey said. “So, I’m giving you this option that if you feel this is what’s best for you, then this is there.”

Communities interested in Baby Boxes

While more than 4,500 babies have been surrendered to Safe Havens in the U.S. since 1999, at least 915 babies died after being abandoned by other means, according to a 2021 report from National Safe Haven Alliance.

Nine states now have Baby Boxes. Communities or organizations interested in a Baby Box, can request an information packet from Safe Haven Baby Boxes.

This article was produced by Texas Community Health News, a program of Texas State University's Translational Health Research Center, in coordination with the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.