Safe Haven Baby Boxes Coming to Oklahoma!

Under Oklahoma’s traditional safe haven law, babies up to 30 days of age can be dropped off. Mrs. Kelsey, seems to imply in the article, though, that that age restriction isn’t adequate. Does she mean that parents need more than 30 days to decide if parenting is “right” for them? That safe haven laws pressure parents to decide early? I dunno. I’m old, and I remember when drive-by parenting was discouraged. Unthinkable. Condemned. Continue Reading →

Safe Haven Baby Boxes are Coming to Your State. And Yours…and Yours…and Yours

The Safe Haven Baby Box Blitzkrieg continues to rip through Indiana. Today SHBB blessed (that means opened) its newest box in Westfield outside of Indianapolis. Since the campaign began in 2016 9 babies have been stuffed into baby boxes for safekeeping–8 in Indiana (5 this year) and 1 in Arkansas  In addition, 3 boxes are located in Ohio with a fourth scheduled for opening soon, probably in Delaware County, north of Columbus. Another box will open soon in Rogers, Arkansas. Yet another is scheduled to open in Oklahoma, but no details have been released. State web pages in Indiana and Ohio do not advertise baby box use or locations and probably won’t. The Indiana Department of Health opposed the SHBB campaign, and I am a little unclear still how the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services reacted I recently filed a records request with ODJFS to tell me more. Continue Reading →