While blue states like Massachusetts have used taxpayer dollars to fund media campaigns against crisis pregnancy centers, Arkansas has done the opposite, offering $250,000 to assist in the installation of Safe Haven Baby Boxes at hospitals, fire departments, and police stations.
In a press release, Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared, “My administration is committed to supporting mothers and babies, especially in their most vulnerable moments. This grant program will provide resources and give struggling new moms safe options that help build a culture of life in Arkansas. I applaud local communities who are investing in this program and partnering with the state.”
According to Lifesite News, “Safe Haven Baby Boxes are designed for mothers to securely and anonymously deliver babies to a safe place where they will be taken by professionals for care and placement with a willing family. They are equipped with heating, cooling, and a silent alarm to ensure a baby is attended to shortly after placement. Once a baby is placed in a box, it then locks on the outside so passersby cannot take or harm him or her.”
The baby boxes offer a humane alternative to mothers in crisis, who might otherwise leave their children outside of police stations or orphanages, exposed to the elements and different dangers, or worse, abandon their children in dumpsters.
In July of this year, a newborn baby, apparently just hours old with the umbilical cord still attached, was left in a dumpster outside of a taco truck in Houston, Texas — and when the climate and time of year are taken into consideration, the circumstances could have easily become fatal. An employee of the taco truck allegedly gave birth inside of the automobile, put the baby in a bag, and put it in a dumpster. When a resident of a nearby apartment complex heard the sound of a crying baby coming from the rubble, they called the police. The baby miraculously survived.
These situations highlight the importance of Baby Boxes, the lives they can save and the impact they can make for struggling mothers and at-risk newborns. As more of them are made readily available, mothers that have made the choice to give up their children will have a safe, humane and legal alternative.
According to the organization leading the initiative, “Safe Haven Baby Boxes has referred over 500 women to crisis pregnancy centers, assisted in 9 adoption referrals, and have had over 150 legal Safe Haven surrenders. Fifty babies have been surrendered in our Baby Boxes. Three babies were surrendered directly to firefighters at Safe Haven Baby Box locations.”
