Despite concerns of child health experts, baby box bill clears Indiana legistlature – South Bend Tribune

The Indiana Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill Thursday aimed at shielding from child neglect charges people who anonymously surrender babies in newborn safety devices at hospitals.

The bill, now on its way to Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb for his signature, also provides civil immunity to hospitals that install the boxes and receive a baby, and it allows two existing boxes at fire stations near Michigan City and Woodburn to continue operating.

I'm super excited ecstatic, said Monica Kelsey, a firefighter and medic, and founder of Woodburn, Ind.-based Safe Haven Baby Boxes. This has been a long fight for us, but I've never given up hope, and legislators have agreed this has to happen in Indiana.

The bill expands Indiana's existing Safe Haven Law, which enables a person to anonymously give up an unwanted infant without fear of arrest or prosecution, in a face-to-face interaction with an emergency medical services provider.

Indiana child welfare and health experts have opposed the boxes, saying people should abandon babies only directly to care providers. Kelsey said she agrees that's preferable but it's naive not to realize that some mothers can't bear the shame of that, especially in small rural communities where they are more likely to know the provider.

Kelsey said her biological mother, who had been raped, abandoned her two hours after she was born at a small hospital in Williams County, Ohio, in 1972. Authorities later found her mother and agreed not to prosecute her if she signed adoption papers, which she did.

The boxes, which install into an exterior wall, have heating and cooling elements, depending on the temperature outside, and weight and motion sensors that notify emergency responders when an infant has been placed inside.

The bill does not specify that fire stations are immune from civil liability, and Kelsey said she will not install more boxes at fire stations until the law is again changed to include them.

Kelsey said she already has contracted with a Michiana hospital to install a box, expected within 90 days, but she declined to identify the hospital yet.

Last year she had planned to install a box at The Life Center, 2018 Ironwood Circle, in South Bend, but the center changed its mind and withdrew from their contract in the face of opposition from the Indiana State Department of Health, said Shawn Sullivan, a South Bend attorney, anti-abortion activist and founder of the Catholic-based center.

The ISDH said they were going to fight it legally, Sullivan said. That caused a number of people to get cold feet, including the Knights of Columbus, which had planned to buy the boxes.

Sullivan said he was confident his center will eventually install a box, but how fast that happens will depend on the state health department's reaction to the new law, assuming Holcomb signs it.

The bill passed the Senate 47-3, receiving support from all Michiana area legislators. Voting against it were Sens. Phil Boots, R-Crawfordsville; Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis and Jean Breaux, D-Indianapolis.

Breaux said she voted against the bill because of the Indiana Department of Child Services' continued opposition to the boxes, the lack of regulated standards on their design and construction, and the uncertainty over how quickly someone would retrieve a baby left in one.

Breaux said women should know that they can surrender babies face-to-face, without giving any information, in no judgment zones.

We certainly shouldn't make it easier for them to circumvent what is in the best interest of that child and not handing it over to a responsible adult is not in the best interest of that child, Breaux said.

The bill also cleared the House 92-4. Breaux said that emotion often times rules where rationality should.

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Despite concerns of child health experts, baby box bill clears Indiana legistlature - South Bend Tribune