A bill that will help fund the installation of baby boxes is head to Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s (R) desk.
The rescue boxes, like Safe Haven Baby Boxes, were created to deter parents from abandoning their newborns in unsafe conditions, 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. Once the baby is inside the baby box the outside door locks and the mother has time to leave before an alarm goes off alerting first responders or hospital staff to the child’s presence.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 is often quickly adopted.
State Rep. Jim Murphy, a St. Louis Republican who sponsored the “Safe Place for Newborns Fund,” called the bill “a pro-life bill that everybody agrees with,” The Missouri Independent reported on Friday.
“That was nearly true. The bill faced no opposition until it reached the Senate, where state Sen. Mike Moon, a Republican from Ash Grove, voted against it Wednesday when it passed 31 to 1. When the bill returned to the House for final approval on Thursday evening, it passed 136 to 1, with state Rep. Bryan Wolfin, a Republican from Ste. Genevieve, as the lone dissenting vote,” according to the report.
The bill was amended in the Senate, where lawmakers added an increased tax credit allowance for maternity homes, from 70 percent to 100 percent, and raised the limit from $50,000 to $100,000 per taxpayer year, according to the report. Lawmakers also extended the diaper bank tax credit expiration date to 2031.
The amendment bill additionally creates a “Zero-Cost Adoption Fund,” which would help residents pay for the costs of adoption and give priority to families adopting children who are in the foster care system. The funds will be dolled out by the Missouri Department of Social Services, and will also go toward community efforts aimed at preventing children from entering the foster care system in the first place.
RELATED: First Infant Surrendered to Missouri’s Only Safe Haven Baby Box
As for the “newborn safety incubators,” the cost of installing one is approximately $20,000, and installation is typical achieved through private donors. Murphy told his fellow lawmakers that people are interested in the boxes all across Missouri, including a councilman in Kansas City who wants to install six boxes. That sentiment is shared by Mehlville Fire Protection District Chief Brian Hendricks, whose fire station became the site of Missouri’s first Safe Haven Baby Box in 2023. A newborn was safely surrendered to the baby box six months after its installation.
“The fire chief said he receives at least three calls a month from other fire departments and law enforcement agencies interested in installing their own boxes. But in most cases, funding is a major barrier,” the report states.
The current budget would allocate $250,000 for the program, which would “put up to $10,000 toward each box, thus contributing to the installation of 25 more boxes in the next fiscal year,” the report continues.
Murphy said six baby boxes have been installed around the state so far, and four more are in the works through private donors.
Missouri passed its Safe Have law in 2002, which allows the safe surrender of infants up to 45 days old to hospitals, fire stations, police stations, and EMS providers. The law was changed in 2021 to allow the surrender of infants to baby boxes.
Murphy noted that since 2002 and the passage of the original Safe Haven law, “many, many babies were still found in dumpsters and alleys and places like that.”
“The safe haven bill didn’t work as planned,” he said, according to the report.
The report cites data from the National Safe Haven Alliance, which found in 2021 that 73 infants had been surrendered through Safe Haven laws throughout the U.S. That same year, 31 babies were abandoned in dangerous locations like dumpsters, 22 of which were found dead, according to the nonprofit.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
