Fire truck parked in front of a fire department
AlexSava/Getty ImagesSafe Haven Baby Boxes could be coming to San Antonio. After Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law expanding the Baby Moses Law, the City of San Antonio is already making plans to outfit the city with the potentially life-saving boxes, according to a KENS 5 news report.
Similar to other states’ Safe Haven laws, the Baby Moses Law was put into place to give parents, who may not be able to care for their child, a designated safe place and leave it with an employee at a hospital, fire station, or other emergency medical facilities, no questions asked. The expansion of the bill, which goes into effect on September 1, will take child safety one step further by allowing local governments to set up Baby Boxes, the bill states.
A Baby Box is installed on an outer wall of locations such as fire stations or hospitals and is equipped with a door that automatically locks once a newborn is placed inside. Once locked, an alarm will sound alerting those inside to the presence of an infant and the baby can be retrieved by using the interior door on the other side. Since they were first put into use in 2016, Baby Boxes have gone on to facilitate over 130 safe surrenders in the U.S., according to the Safe Haven Baby Boxes website.
City Council plans to introduce Baby Boxes into the next budget. They are looking into establishing 10 to 12 of them at an estimated cost of $250,000. The boxes could be installed as early as the end of the first quarter of 2024, City Councilman John Courage told KENS 5.
