A woman brought a newborn girl to a Houston fire station shortly after midnight on Tuesday, Oct. 8, and left.
The baby was taken to a hospital for evaluation, the news outlet reported, citing police as saying the infant did not bear any signs of injury.
“At this point, CPS and HPD juvenile investigators will do a follow-up investigation to see if we can determine circumstances of how the child was dropped off at the fire station,” said HPD Lt. Larry Crowson, according to KTRK.
Mother Drops Off 11-Month-Old Son at Houston Fire Station
The incident follows the earlier case of a woman who dropped off her 11-month-old son at a Houston fire station, reportedly out of fear for his safety.She reportedly told the police she and the boy had nowhere to go and would have had to stay overnight in her car.
“We are going to be sleeping in the car, somebody going to come up with a gun, kill us, rob us,” she told the media outlet. “Either that or they will see me sleeping. A woman, guy, somebody will come by the car and say, ‘Oh, she sleeping in the car with her baby, we fixing to call the police.’”
The woman left the child at Fire Station 68 at around 3 a.m., according to the report, before returning about an hour later.
Texas ‘Baby Moses Law’
Parents unable to care for a child that is 60 days or younger can legally drop them off at fire stations, hospitals, and emergency centers in Texas under what’s called the Baby Moses law.“If you have a newborn that you’re unable to care for, you can bring your baby to a designated safe place with no questions asked,” the Texas Department of State Health Services states.
Also knows as the Safe Haven law, the Baby Moses law “gives parents who are unable to care for their child a safe and legal choice to leave their infant with an employee at a designated safe place—a hospital, freestanding emergency medical care facility, fire station, or emergency medical services (EMS) station.”
The department notes that the parent’s identity will not be divulged and medical care will be provided to the baby.
Safe Haven Laws
Every state, including Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, has similar laws to the Baby Moses Law in Texas, under which parents can safely and with impunity cede custody of infants. The specifics of the laws vary across states.The agency explains the reason for the enactment of the laws is “to address infant abandonment and endangerment in response to a reported increase in the abandonment of infants in unsafe locations, such as public restrooms or trash receptacles.”