A newborn was safely surrendered in June to a Safe Haven Baby Box in Madison, Alabama, the Safe Haven Baby Boxes organization announced on Thursday.
The surrender is the fourth at the Madison location since it was opened in January 2024 and the seventh in the state since 2024, WAFF reported, citing the organization.
“We are proud of the many communities that have prioritized being prepared for safe surrender across the state with 22 locations,” the organization’s founder, Monica Kelsey, said in a statement. “Surrender is an act of sacrificial love … and now we have another safe infant.”
She added that the organization provides post-surrender support and counseling to mothers who choose to contact them.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes were created to deter parents from abandoning their newborns in unsafe places, potentially leaving them to die. Baby boxes are temperature-controlled incubators, often built into exterior walls of fire stations, police stations, and hospitals, and can be accessed from inside. At-risk mothers can safely and legally place their newborns inside the baby box. Then the outside door locks, and mothers have time to leave before an alarm goes off, alerting first responders or hospital staff inside.
The baby is then quickly removed and sent to a hospital for a wellness check. From there, the baby is usually placed into state custody and often quickly adopted.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes launched nine years ago in Indiana and has expanded nationwide with at least 455 locations in 25 states. More than 80 newborns have been surrendered to baby boxes across the United States, according to the organization.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes has a confidential National Safe Haven Hotline, 1-866-99BABY1, that provides free counseling and information about safe surrenders, including face-to-face surrenders. The organization says it has assisted with more than 200 additional infant surrenders to other safe haven locations through its hotline.
In Alabama, infants up to 45 days old can be surrendered legally to hospitals, fire stations, and baby boxes, according to the organization.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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