The edge of desperation

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NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 18th of November.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Across the country, more fire stations and hospitals are installing so-called “baby boxes.” These are secure Safe Haven drop-off sites where parents in crisis can surrender a newborn safely and anonymously.

Supporters contend they’re saving lives. Others say more oversight is called for.

Here’s WORLD’s Lauren Canterberry.

LAUREN CANTERBERRY: On Labor Day, a 12-year-old boy found the body of a newborn baby girl at an Indianapolis park.

FOX 59: The baby was found here in this small wooded clearing by kids who were playing at the park. INPD is still investigating the death...

The coroner’s office later determined that she was around 30 weeks gestation, but police have not said how she died or identified her mother.

FUNERAL AUDIO: Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.

Community members gathered at a cemetery chapel last month to honor the baby girl after the organization He Knows Your Name claimed her body from the coroner to arrange her funeral. Linda Znachko is the founder of the nonprofit that names and buries abandoned babies.

ZNACHKO: This baby was lost. This baby is now found.

Znachko’s organization named the baby girl Haven Grace Hope. Her name refers to Indiana’s safe haven law that allows women to surrender their infants to officials at designated locations.

All 50 states have laws that enable parents to legally and anonymously surrender an unharmed infant at a fire station, hospital, police station, or other designated location. According to the National Safe Haven Alliance, more than 5,200 [fifty-two hundred] babies have been safely surrendered in the United States since the first haven law was passed in 1999. But dozens of babies are still illegally abandoned in the U.S. every year, with just over half surviving.

POLICE: I call it the miracle on 34th street.

Last month, police in New York City found a newborn baby girl, wrapped in a blanket, alone at the base of a staircase in a Manhattan subway station. In September, residents at an apartment complex in Austin, Texas, found a baby girl in a dumpster. In both cases the babies survived, and authorities later located and arrested their mothers.

Back in Indianapolis, Znachko spoke to Fox News after Haven was found.

ZNACHKO: There are women falling through the cracks and we’ve got to do a better job getting to them somehow with the message that they are not alone and that we have resources to offer them.

He Knows Your Name advocates for better awareness about safe haven laws, and it also partners with an organization called Safe Haven Baby Boxes. That nonprofit installs wall compartments that are secure and temperature-controlled, offering a surrender option free from human contact. One of the boxes is about five miles from where Haven was found.

After installing its first box in 2016, the group has now placed nearly 400 boxes across the country. About half of all states now allow the boxes, though New York does not. Some advocates say the completely anonymous option could help save more babies.

In Montgomery, Alabama, Assistant Fire Chief Craig Carr Jr. said he advocated for the new fire station to include a box.

CARR: We opened the station in May, and by August we had our first surrender in the box. She was perfectly healthy. She still had her umbilical cord, so she was less than five days old.

Before the Baby Box was an option, Carr responded to calls about abandoned babies as a first responder.

CARR: We’ve had babies that were abandoned in trash receptacles or bathrooms. That’s what we want to avoid. We don’t want that to ever be an option here.

Just days after Carr’s team received the latest baby girl, police across the border in Georgia discovered a newborn baby boy in a dumpster outside a motel. The baby survived, and his 22-year-old mother was arrested, but the case sparked calls for the state to permit the boxes.

Georgia is one of many states where lawmakers have tried and failed to amend the safe haven laws to allow the option. Opponents say the unregulated boxes could pose safety and legal risks. They argue it is difficult to determine if a surrendered baby has been abused, neglected, trafficked, or kidnapped if a trained professional does not interact with the adult leaving the baby.

Dawn Geras is the founder of the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation in Illinois and helped advocate for her home state to adopt its safe haven law in 2001. She says parents who call a hotline or who speak to someone at a safe haven location can receive medical help and information about options that could help them keep their baby.

GERAS: Not having direct contact with a human being, there’s no opportunity to offer the mom any kind of supportive services. In 25% of the cases, we’ve been able to help the parent make a parenting plan and actually keep the baby, or make a traditional adoption plan, both of which are better than safe haven.

On its website, Safe Haven Baby Boxes responds to many of the common concerns about their boxes. It agrees that infant surrender should always be the last option…but it should be an option. The nonprofit declined to speak to WORLD for this story.

Meanwhile, other safe haven advocates argue better public education will help make sure fewer babies are abandoned. Heather Burner is the executive director for the National Safe Haven Alliance. She says federal legislation could also help clarify the laws.

BURNER: I think having some minimum standards across the board would be really, really good, because then you don’t have a three-day law and a 30-day law with states that are right next to each other.

One thing advocates can agree on is that a woman should have access to all possible support to keep her baby.

BURNER: Safe haven is a beautiful, life-saving law. But it should also be the last resort.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Canterberry.

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