It’s safe to say that 2016 is the year of ‘anything goes.’ Let’s not forget Donald Trump is running for president (and has been having a successful campaign) but now, word on the street is that Indiana approved and installed a drop-off box for mothers to leave their unwanted baby.
It’s called the Safe Haven Baby Box and its the very first in the United States.
There’s a method to the madness though. Apparently, there were plans to defund Planned Parenthood, the organization that a great number of women use for women’s health services like birth control, testing, and abortions. If y’all been following Trumps campaign, y’all would know that he’s anti…everything –Except abortion. He feels that women should be punished for aborting their child(ren). Those are the two details that are the recipe that lead to the baby drop-off box.
Indiana has two locations for drop-off. The first is outside of the Woodburn Volunteer Fire Department and the second is on Michigan City.
Speaking of the fire department, reportedly, it was a fire department volunteer who founded the drop-off boxes. Her name is Monica Kelsey and she was an abandoned infant; which strongly roots her efforts. When Kelsey was an infant, she claims to have been abandoned on April 19th, just hours after her mother gave birth which is why she chose April 19th to be her grand opening for the boxes.
According to Complex, “Safe Haven Baby Boxes work with the nationwide Safe Haven law which allows women to abandon unwanted newborns without any legal consequences at places such as hospitals, police stations, and fire stations.”
When you think of drop-off box, you might think of a plain old box but The Safe Haven Baby Boxes, According to the official website, have heating and cooling plus a security system to alert when a baby has been dropped off.
“These boxes have a heating and cooling unit and are equipped with ADT trips so emergency personal [sic] will be notified within 30 seconds that there is a newborn placed in the box. The child will then be picked up by EMS within 3-5 minutes,” the website reports.
Sounds like a pretty high-tech box! Well according to the Associated Press, each box runs for about $1.5k to $2k. And those two in Indiana aren’t the end! Kelsey plans to make this a viral movement! The first 100 boxes are being sponsored by the Knights of Columbus of Indiana (a Catholic-based church).
How are y’all feeling about these drop-off boxes, roommates?! Let’s chat!
Source: Complex, http://www.complex.com/life/2016/05/baby-drop-off-box-indiana
TSR intern: Chantel P.! @_popchanny on IG!
