Anonymous Baby Drop-Off Boxes Installed in Indiana for Unwanted Newborns

The Safe Haven Baby Box at the Woodburn, Ind., Volunteer Fire Department, is temperature-controlled and sounds an alarm when the door is opened. The baby box allows mothers to drop off unwanted newborns anonymously with emergency help moments away. The padded, climate-controlled container was dedicated Tuesday, April 26, 2016, at the Woodburn Volunteer Fire Department Chad Ryan/The Journal Gazette via AP

The first two Safe Haven Baby Boxes in the country have been installed in Indiana.

The Safe Haven Baby Box gives unwilling mothers the option to drop off their unwanted infants anonymously.

It’s creator, Monica Kelsey of Woodburn, Indiana, dedicated the first baby drop-off box attached to the inside of the firehouse Woodburn Volunteer Fire Department on April 19; The second baby box, was installed Thursday in Michigan City.

To have the non-profit boxes approved and installed in other states, each would have to go through its own state’s legislation.

According to AP, the drop-off box, is padded inside and it’s also temperature-controlled. 

In addition, it is electronically monitored and has a medical-warming device that keeps each box between 95 degrees and 100 degrees all year, according to KFOR.

Kelsey, who now serves as a firefighter with the Woodburn Volunteer Fire Department in Indiana, was abandoned as a newborn on April 19th, 1973, and the first Safe Haven Baby Box was installed on her birthday, April 19.

Monica Kelsey and the town of Woodburn, Ind., dedicated the first Safe Haven Baby Box of its kind on Tuesday, April 26, 2016, at the Woodburn Volunteer Fire Department. The box, which is temperature controlled and has a padded inside, is electronically monitored and sounds an alarm with the fire station whenever the door is opened. Chad Ryan/The Journal Gazette via AP

It was her experience that inspired the installation.

“This is not criminal,” Kelsey said. “This is legal. We don’t want to push women away.”

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have safe haven laws, which allows parents to deliver unharmed, unwanted newborns to fire stations, police stations, or hospitals—without any penalty, as long as it’s within each state’s time limit.  

For the past 15 years, Kelsey says the Safe Haven law has saved more than 3,100 babies nationwide, KFOR reported.

Installation of the baby boxes costs between $1,500 and $2,000; the state’s Knights of Columbus organization will be paying for the first 100 baby box installations, Kelsey said.