Waco Weighs a Safe Haven Baby Box for Mothers in Crisis
A foster care advocate asked Waco's council to install a safe haven baby box, an anonymous way for a mother to surrender a newborn. No decision yet.
Waco's City Council is considering whether to install a safe haven baby box. The box is a secure, climate-controlled drop-off where a parent who cannot care for a newborn can surrender the baby without being seen.
Andrea Zimmerman of the Families and Foster Care Coalition made the case at a recent council meeting, KXXV reported.
"I think we can all imagine if we put ourselves in the shoes of a mother who knows that she cannot care for this baby and she's about to do the hardest thing in her life and possibly the most loving thing," Zimmerman said. "Maybe she doesn't want to talk to somebody. Maybe she wants to keep that moment private."
How the boxes work
Texas law already lets a parent safely surrender a newborn up to 60 days old at a designated safe place, such as a fire station or hospital. A baby box adds a way to do that without speaking to anyone. KXXV reported there are 23 safe haven baby boxes in Texas; city staff counted 22, 16 of them at fire stations, in a Sept. 1 presentation.
That city presentation, by Bergerson and facilities director Derrick Oltmann, says Waco firefighters have accepted two surrendered infants without a box: in 2017 at Fire Station 11 and this year at Fire Station 7. Staff noted one gap in the current process: firefighters must be present to accept the child, and crews from the city's 14 stations answer more than 23,000 calls a year. The presentation puts the box program fee at about $16,000 and installation at $5,000 to $7,000, with annual certification, monitoring, weekly testing and training after that. Staff laid out three options: keep the current process, evaluate a box during future station design, or study it further.
Zimmerman said the average response time is two minutes after a baby is placed inside. Cameras inside the box show the child but not the person leaving it. She also said Texas is the number one state for child abandonment; Dock Line did not independently verify that claim.
The city's caution
Waco Fire Chief Robby Bergerson said in a statement that a box "would require additional evaluation and coordination to determine operational requirements, appropriate locations, and other considerations to ensure the safety of both the infant and responding personnel."
No decision has been made. Mayor Holmes said the council is still working through some issues.
Why it matters
Scripture tells us every child is known by God before birth. "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee," the Lord told Jeremiah. A city that makes it easier for a frightened mother to hand her baby to someone who will care for it is protecting life at its most fragile moment.
The chief's caution is fair. A box that fails, or a response that is slow, would be worse than no box at all, so the details matter. But the details can be worked out. Twenty-two or more Texas sites already have.
"This is an opportunity for our community to unify over keeping children safe," Zimmerman said. Waco residents who agree can tell their council members before the decision is made.
Hero photo: Myotus via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0, cropped and resized.
