Safe Haven Baby Boxes founder urges lawmakers to remember ‘anonymity matters’

Safe Haven Baby Boxes has been saving the lives of babies who might have otherwise been abandoned or left to die, and the organization’s founder Monica Kelsey wants people to know the importance of parental anonymity to those safely giving up their infants.

Safe Haven Laws, or “Baby Moses” laws, exist in all 50 states and allow parents to safely surrender an infant in a specific location – usually at a first responder site – within a certain number of days after birth. The laws shield parents who, for any number of reasons, cannot care for their infants, and they protect babies born in less than ideal circumstances from dangerous situations.

Every year, there are dozens of tragic stories of infants born in toilets or deserted in dumpsters or simply left to die in the woods. Safe Haven Baby Boxes provide a safe space for infants to be left so first responders can immediately bring them to receive life-saving care. 

“In some of these states,” Kelsey told Live Action News previously, “the girl gets free medical care to assist with the birth of the child or any complications resulting from the birth. This law is a win-win situation for all parties involved. The mother walks away with zero chance of prosecution, while the baby has the opportunity to be adopted into a loving home, and a family open their hearts and home to the child for whom they’ve prayed.”

The key to all of this is parental anonymity, and Kelsey is concerned about what lawmakers in Arkansas might do if this anonymity isn’t carefully guarded.

In a series of TikTok videos, she discussed the fundamental need to keep parents anonymous and raised concerns about what some lawmakers are proposing to do. The anonymity protects a mother giving birth, allowing her to be in a safe location when she delivers. 

“If a parent goes into a hospital, gives birth, and surrenders in a hospital – now, having a baby in a hospital is a safe delivery. We advocate for this. Go into the hospital, give birth, tell them you want to surrender under the Safe Haven law, and then leave without an infant,” she said in her TikTok. But the proposed law would mean that if a mother gives her name in a hospital to receive care during the birth, the Department of Child Services “will refuse to put this child under the protection of the Safe Haven Law and you will be charged with abandonment. This is going backwards. This is absolutely going backwards.” 

Kelsey is concerned about the health and safety of mothers who feel the need to give up an infant, as much as she is about the surrendered infants themselves. Care and counseling is available through the Safe Haven Baby Boxes website, and Kelsey wants abandoning an infant to be a last resort. 

“We don’t want women coming to our baby boxes as a first resort, we want it as a last resort,” she said. “They’re going to be placing more babies in our boxes and doing more home births.” 

She also expressed her concern that this might set a precedent. “Usually when one state does something, other states follow and we cannot allow a state to dictate a safe haven surrender when a parent is just trying to do the right thing.” 

For Kelsey, this fight is personal, as she herself was a surrendered infant. At 17 years old, her mother was a victim of rape with nowhere to turn, and surrendered her baby at a local hospital. Now, Kelsey fights for circumstances that would have made her mother’s life better, and for all mothers and infants in dangerous situations. 

And for that, the anonymity of parents needs to be protected in order to keep them and their infants safe. “Women who surrender under the Safe Haven Law, they should be given no shame, no blame, and no names.” 

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