A bill that would legalize Safe Haven Baby Boxes in Georgia passed the state House of Representatives on Tuesday.
House Bill 350, cosponsored by Republican Rep. Dale Washburn of the 144th District, would allow fire stations, police stations, medical facilities, and ambulance services across Georgia to install baby boxes, 13WMAZ reported. The Georgia House passed the bill unanimously, sending it to the state Senate.
“Anything that protects a baby’s life is a good thing, of course,” Washburn said after the vote. “It just gives another option that will protect the baby’s life, and it is about protecting a baby’s life.”
Baby boxes were created to deter parents from abandoning their newborns in unsafe conditions, potentially leaving them to die. Baby boxes are temperature-controlled incubators often built into exterior walls of fire stations, police stations, and hospitals that can be accessed from inside. At-risk mothers can safely and legally place their newborns inside. Once the baby is inside the baby box the outside door locks and the mother has time to leave before an alarm goes off alerting first responders or hospital staff to the child’s presence.
The baby is then quickly removed and sent to a hospital for a wellness check. From there, the infant is usually placed into state custody and is often adopted quickly.
Current Georgia law allows the legal surrender of unharmed newborns up to 30 days after birth to medical facilities, fire stations, and police stations without risk of prosecution. The new bill would expand the law to allow facilities to install baby boxes.
“Life is a great gift from God, and certainly we want to protect infants who are defenseless and can’t protect themselves,” Washburn said. “This enables a parent or a young mother to be able to put a baby in a secure situation where an alarm will go off and notify the folks inside the facility that there’s a baby there that needs attention.”
The Safe Haven Baby Boxes organization launched nine years ago in Indiana and has expanded nationwide with at least 400 locations. More than 70 newborns have been surrendered to baby boxes across the United States, according to the organization. Safe Haven Baby Boxes also says it has assisted 150 people with safe surrenders to other safe haven locations.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes also has a confidential National Safe Haven Hotline, 1-866-99BABY1, that provides free counseling and information about safe surrenders, including face-to-face surrenders.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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