NORTH VERNON — Mothers of unwanted babies have a new, safe, legal alternative for giving them up in Jennings County.
A Safe Haven Baby Box that was installed at the North Vernon Fire Department was unveiled Thursday before a small crowd of people, and received a religious blessing to make it ready to receive any baby surrendered by its mother.
Indiana’s 2001 Safe Haven Law allowed mothers of babies less than 30 days old to surrender her baby to a hospital, police station or staffed fire department without legal punishment.
The baby boxes are designed to be built into the side of a building’s wall. They have two doors; one door opens on the outside of the building and the other door opens on the inside.
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The boxes are programmed to sense when a baby is placed inside and trigger an emergency alert. After the alert is triggered, the outside door cannot be reopened, and only the inside door can be opened to remove the baby. The boxes are climate-controlled to keep the baby comfortable.
North Vernon Fire Chief Mike Cole was one of about 35 people who attended the ceremony.
“There was a lot of effort by many people to make this happen, but we hope it will never be used,” Cole said, as he showed how the back of the Baby Box opened into the warm sleeping quarters of the fire station.
Brian Horton, an engineer at the fire department, and firefighter Caleb Marling said they were confident the Baby Box installed at the edge of the sleeping quarters would not be a problem.
“All the (standard operating procedures) and procedures if a baby comes through are already drawn up, and we will have some drills to make sure everyone feels confident with what they are supposed to do,” Marling said.
“It’s really no different than what we do all the time,” Horton added. “There are babies and kids at fires, too. We are trained on how to handle them all everywhere. This won’t be any different.”
Cole added the goal of the fire department is to have any baby left in its Safe Haven Baby Box to be removed and taken by ambulance to a proper medical facility within four minutes.
North Vernon’s Mayor Mike Ochs cited an 2015 incident, when a baby was abandoned at a local church, as why it is appropriate and beneficial that the North Vernon Fire Department should be involved in the Safe Haven Baby Box effort.
North Vernon’s Baby Box is the sixth to be installed in the state since July 2018.
The mayor commended the North Vernon’s Knights of Columbus Council 1631 for its efforts to make the Baby Box possible.
A Safe Haven Baby Box costs $10,000, which includes installation costs. The local Knights of Columbus raised the money to cover the cost of the Baby Box. No tax money was used.
Not only did the Knights of Columbus raise the first $10,000 dollars for North Vernon’s Baby Box in less than a year, they also raised an additional $10,000 for another Baby Box to placed anywhere in Indiana that the creator of the Baby Box thought was needed.
“We did not do this by ourselves. We had help from other knights in our district, including Seymour, Four Corners and over in Decatur County. Protecting life and the innocent is what the Knights of Columbus do,” said Anthony Callahan, who led the fundraising efforts.
“It is also important to remember these Baby Boxes are not just about the baby. This is also about protecting the mother,” said Knights of Columbus member Scott Cunningham. “If a mother abandons her baby outside the Safe Haven Law’s provisions, and the baby dies, the mother is tried for murder.”
Cunningham added that even if the baby isn’t injured, the mother can face other legal ramifications if she doesn’t follow the Safe Haven Law.
“But these Baby Boxes are completely safe for both the mother and the baby. No shame, no blame, no names,” Cunningham said.
The blessing ceremony for North Vernon’s Baby Box was conducted on the eve of the anniversary of the discovery of Baby Amelia’s dead body in Indianapolis’ Eagle Creek Park on Dec. 28, 2014.
In response to Baby Amelia’s death, Monica Kelsey started the Safe Haven Baby Boxes organization. The goal of the organization is to establish safe and legal places where mothers can anonymously surrender their newborn babies.
In spite of the Safe Haven Law, several deadly infant abandonments have occurred since 2001, which Kelsey said convinced her that more needed to be done.
For more than three years, Kelsey lobbied across the state for the Safe Haven Baby Box Law, which was passed in 2018. The new law allows mothers to surrender there babies into the specially designed boxes.
Although Kelsey lives in northern Indiana, she traveled to attend the blessing and dedication in North Vernon.
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What: Safe Haven Baby Box. A climate-controlled box installed into the wall of a building that allows a mother to place her unwanted newborn baby safely inside. The box has a door on the exterior of the building and the interior. After the baby is placed inside and the exterior door closed, the exterior door locks and an alert system is triggered. Only the interior door can be opened to remove the baby.
How: Indiana’s 2001 Safe Haven Law allowed mothers of babies less than 30 days old to surrender her baby to a hospital, police station or staffed fire department without legal punishment.
Why: Created by Monica Kelsey after the discovery of a dead baby’s body in a park in Indianapolis in 2014, as an alternative for mothers who don’t want their babies.
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