West Virginia Bill Would Allow Establishment of ‘Baby Box’ Locations Across State’s 55 Counties

A West Virginia bill would allow the establishment of “baby box” locations in each of the state’s 55 counties, the Associated Press reported.

“Under the bill, a baby box would be placed in each of West Virginia’s 55 counties at one of those locations. The box would have to be padded, heated and equipped with a notification system to alert those on site that a child has been placed inside the box,” according to the report. 

The House Judiciary Committee forwarded the bill to the full House of Delegates on Wednesday. West Virginia already has a Safe Haven Law in place that allows parents to turn their babies that are less than 30 days old over to a hospital, health facility or fire department that is staffed 24 hours a day.

Safe Haven Baby Boxes has established more than 130 baby boxes across nine states, according to the report. Founder and CEO Monic Kelsey said that 24 babies have been surrendered to baby boxes across the United States. 

Two baby box surrenders have made headlines recently — earlier this month a baby box in Kentucky was used for the first time. 

Kelsey said of the Kentucky surrender:

Thank you for doing what you felt you could for the life of this child. This baby is healthy. This baby is beautiful. This baby is perfect. And the Department of Child Services is now looking for a forever home for this family… If this parent is out there and they want the resources of counseling or medical care, it is available for you at no cost.

A newborn baby was also surrendered to Florida’s “first and only” Safe Haven Baby Box at Ocala’s Fire Rescue headquarters in January, “marking the first time it has been used,” according to according to WKMG-TV Click Orlando.

Kelsey said she came up with the idea for Safe Haven Baby Boxes “because officials were still finding dead, abandoned babies despite states having a Safe Haven law, allowing mothers to surrender newborns to hospitals and fire stations.”

“My biological father is a rapist and I was abandoned at birth and my life still has value. I wish that today, my birth mom would have had those resources all those years ago,” she said.