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State Could Provide 'Safe Haven' Baby Boxes For Parents

Eric Allix Rogers
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/reallyboring/2755708614/

Indiana could become the first state to put out boxes designed for parents to put babies in when giving those children up.

The Safe Haven Baby Boxes bill was passed unanimously by the House as an alternative to parents abandoning children in unsafe areas.

Fort Wayne firefighter and paramedic Monica Kelsey says not enough parents know about the Safe Haven Law and there need to be more options for desperate parents.

“But there are these girls that don’t want their faces seen and we’re finding babies abandoned in woods, creeks, dumpsters. Those are the babies that we’re targeting with these boxes. Those are the women that need us,” Kelsey says.

A law in place allows parents to leave their children at fire departments, police stations and hospitals confidentially. Kelsey says the goal of the boxes is to give mothers with newborns another option.

“We want girls to choose to go to their crisis pregnancy center, their family physicians to get help during their pregnancy. We want them to know, though, that this is an option if they find that they have no other choice,” Kelsey says.

If the bill becomes a law, Kelsey says 100 boxes will be in place by July 2016.

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