Wisconsin governor signs law allowing installation of Safe Haven Baby Boxes

Last week, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers signed a bipartisan bill that would allow specific emergency departments, such as fire departments, to install devices known as “baby boxes.” These boxes allow parents to safely surrender their newborn babies under three days old anonymously when they feel unable to parent. 

Monica Kelsey, founder and CEO of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, told the Wisconsin Morning Show why emergency facilities should install the baby boxes. “With the changing culture, we have to advance this law… instead of finding babies consistently in dumpsters and trash cans, now we’re finding babies safely in boxes in the states that have them, and so we’re trying to turn the tide so that babies aren’t left out to die,” she explained.

“Wisconsin has had a [lot] of abandonments in the past year, and we’re trying to combat that,” she added.

After she saw a baby box in South Africa, Kelsey brought the idea to the United States. “This is a personal mission for me to make sure no one ends up like my birth mother and no one ends up like me. And so, if that means for the rest of my life I run an organization to try and keep these babies safe and these moms from being prosecuted, then that’s what I’m going to do,” said Kelsey, who was abandoned as an infant.

The U.S. has seen 17 babies safely surrendered in various states using baby boxes this year alone.

READ: The original ‘baby box’ saved the great-grandfather of this famous actor

Kelsey explained that the Wisconsin Safe Haven Law has been around for 22 years and has allowed parents to surrender their newborn to a police officer, 911 emergency medical staff person or a hospital staff member, no questions asked. The recent bill updates that law to allow fully staffed hospitals and fire and police stations to install ventilated, temperature-controlled “baby boxes” in outside walls so that parents can more easily relinquish their babies anonymously

After a newborn is placed in a baby box, the box locks and triggers an alarm, alerting the firefighters. The baby isn’t in there for long, and Kelsey explains, “This is a safe option, and we should honor that.”

“Pro-Life Wisconsin supports efforts to prevent the illegal abandonment of newborn infants, often resulting in their tragic demise, by offering ways to hand over newborns lawfully and safely to proper authorities,” said Matt Sande, Pro-Life Wisconsin Legislative Director, to WIS Politics.

 He added, “Act 79 gives localities and new parents in crisis the option of safe haven baby boxes. A ‘baby box’ avoids the visible, face-to-face contact that might dissuade an otherwise willing parent from safely relinquishing his or her newborn child. We thank Senator Ballweg and Representative Schutt for their dedicated work in passing this critical legislation with bi-partisan support, and we thank Governor Evers for signing it into law. We know that it will save lives.”