In early January 2022, in freezing winter conditions in Hobbs, New Mexico, a woman was caught on surveillance camera depositing her newborn in a plastic garbage bag in a dumpster behind a shopping mall (Herald, July 25, 2022).
It’s shocking to think a mother’s life circumstances are so dire she feels she has no other choice than to give up her child.
Fortunately, the Hobbs newborn was found alive and spurred commissioners in the southeast New Mexico town to consider options to make sure women had additional options, including anonymous surrender.
It had the Herald’s editorial board wondering if this is something our state should be considering, too?
Hobbs’ commissioners did some research and learned about the Indiana-based Safe Haven Baby Box program (shbb.org). Its mission is “to prevent illegal abandonment of newborns by raising awareness, offering a 24-hour hotline for mothers in crisis, and implementing Safe Haven Baby Boxes as a last resort option for women who want to safely surrender their child with complete anonymity.”
SHBB founder, Monica Kelsey, saw her first baby box in South Africa. Her own experience as an abandoned infant, and desire to save lives and support mothers in crisis, fueled her desire to establish the nonprofit.
Hobbs’ commissioners, both Republican and Democrat, established a resolution to seek funding for a Safe Haven Site at a local fire station and began plans to install a baby box that provides for the safe surrender of infants up to 90 days old without parental fear of criminal prosecution.
In 2022, New Mexico became the sixth state to join the baby box movement. On Dec. 6 of this year, Bloomfield, New Mexico, one hour to our south, became the 295th baby box site in the U.S., and the ninth baby box site in New Mexico (Tri-City Record, Dec. 20). Hobbs followed Española as the first baby box site in New Mexico. Farmington and Almagordo are also on the list.
In 2022, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham believed the need strong enough that she advocated for a $350,000 fund to provide baby boxes statewide.
The answer to our question is “no.“
Not only did we learn it is not legal in Colorado, but a less expensive option exists: a hand-off. Durango Fire Protection District looked into a baby box for its new fire station and was surprised to learn state law requires a face-to-face surrender. And a state legislative fix (SB24-083) failed last session.
Since 2000, Colorado has had a safe haven law that allows parents to “hand-off” a newborn up to 3 days old to an on-duty hospital employee or firefighter. We like this option.
Apparently, this law needs more publicity as a 1-month-old baby boy was found alone in his car seat on Christmas Day in a street median north of Denver. The parents, now in jail, would not be there had they known about the safe haven law and hand-off option.
Since SHBB’s founding in 2016, there have been 54 box surrenders and over 150 hand-off surrenders in the 21 states with boxes.
With three times the number of hand-offs than box surrenders, and no legal means currently, Colorado’s least expensive option would be to broadly publicize this offering.
The SHBB program has grown in three years from six to 21 states participating. This is what a safety net is all about. Government and nonprofit organizations working in tandem to support the most vulnerable among us.
