The 400th Safe Haven Baby Box nationwide opened at a Texas hospital on Friday afternoon.
The new baby box opened in Texarkana at the Texarkana Emergency Center-Hospital at 4646 Cowhorn Creek Rd., providing a safe, anonymous option for parents in crisis, KSLA reported.
“It’s a great day when we bless any box, but today it’s extra special since it’s box 400,” said Mariah Betz, assistant project coordinator for Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
Baby boxes were created to deter parents from abandoning their newborns, 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. Then, the outside door locks, and mothers have time to get away before an alarm goes off alerting first responders or hospital staff inside.
RELATED: Infant Surrendered to Ohio Safe Haven Baby Box
The baby is then quickly removed and sent to a hospital for a wellness check. From there, the baby is usually placed into state custody and often quickly adopted.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes began nine years ago in Indiana and has since expanded nationwide. According to the organization, at least 70 newborns have been surrendered to baby boxes across the country. Safe Haven Baby Boxes said it has also assisted 150 people with safe surrenders to other safe haven locations, according to the report.
“We have found out that every two to three days, we find an abandoned infant in this country, whether in a trashcan or a dumpster or in places they should not be placed, so this is just another great alternative for a parent in crisis to surrender their child,” Betz said.
The baby box in Texarkana is the fourteenth in Texas, another local news outlet reported. Texas’s first baby box was installed in April 2024 in Abilene.
“The Texarkana Baby Box was made possible through a collaborative community effort, with donations and participation from The Hardy Methodist Women, Communities Unlimited, the Kiwanis Club of Texarkana, Texarkana Emergency Center & Hospital, the Texarkana Oaklawn Rotary Club, the Texarkana Sunrise Rotary Club, and the Texarkana Wilbur Smith Rotary Club,” per the report.
Hospital officials told the outlet the baby box helps the facility uphold its commitment to serve the community beyond emergency medical care.
“This is about protecting life and giving families hope during their most desperate moments,” a hospital representative said. “If this box saves even one child, it will have been worth every effort.”
Texas has a Safe Haven law that allows for the legal surrender of an unharmed newborn up to 60 days after birth to hospitals, fire stations, EMS providers, and baby boxes, according to the organization.
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.
