JORDAN FOUTS
The Elkhart Truth, Ind.
(TNS)
GOSHEN — Women who are forced by state law to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term can safely surrender the infant in Goshen.
The organization Safe Haven Baby Box installed a secure, climate-controlled box in a supplies garage behind the Goshen Fire Department’s central station downtown. The location was chosen because there are no security cameras, allowing women to surrender their child anonymously.
“Once the door is closed, there’s a weight sensor so there would be a call that goes to dispatch,” Mayor Gina Leichty explained Friday during the unveiling of the box. “But there’s also a notification that goes to the administrators of this fire station, so they know immediately that a child has been placed in the box. And it’s also locked from the outside.”
The organization 100 Women Who Care chose Safe Haven Baby Box to receive a $10,000 grant to install the device. Ongoing maintenance will be covered by a fund at the Community Foundation of Elkhart County.
“They came to us with the idea and we felt like it was certainly something that was welcomed by our fire department and the community. Certainly something that’s a need, to provide just one more option for people,” Leichty said. “While we hope that people are never faced with this kind of crisis, we hope that people know that there is this option available as an option of last resort. There’s a safe way.”
Under Indiana’s Safe Haven Law, a person is allowed to surrender a newborn to an emergency medical services provider within 30 days of birth without being subject to prosecution for neglect or abandonment. No information is required from the person leaving the baby as long as there are no signs of abuse.
After an infant is examined and given medical treatment if needed, the Indiana Department of Child Services takes it into custody through Child Protective Services or a licensed agency and the infant is placed with a caregiver.
The Goshen location marks the 145th Baby Box in Indiana and the 321st in the nation. Monica Kelsey, CEO of Safe Haven Baby Box, started the organization in 2016 based on her own experience of being abandoned at an Ohio hospital shortly after birth in the 1970s.
“In my opinion, we would rather have a box and not need it than need a box and not have it. If a community doesn’t have a Baby Box and there’s a mother who can’t go very far, what’s going to happen?” Kelsey said. “We see that all over America, every three to four days in America, a baby is dumped. … That’s not happening in Indiana anymore.”
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