Missouri Taxpayers Slated to Become Safe Haven Baby Boxes Inc’s Newest Cash Cow

Well looky here!

You know how Safe Haven Baby Boxes Founder/CEO Monica Kelsey likes to claim that her baby abandonment boxes don’t cost taxpayers a dime. While much of her income is derived from individual, business, and foundation donations, an increasing amount of money, however, comes from state and local “grants” funded by taxpayer money with some Federal Homeland Security and Covid funds thrown in the kettle. You can see a listing of some of those sources and amounts on the SSHBBN Promotors page. It needs some updating, but it gives you a good idea of how taxpayers so far have been rooked for nearly $2 million (and more when the update goes up) Note: these are allocated funds, and may not haven been paid out yet.

Now comes Missouri!

On December 2, 2024, State Representative Jim Murphy, the Godfather of the Missouri baby box law, pre-filed HB 101 (bill page here) to create a Safe Place for Newborns Fund consisting of money appropriated by the state legislature solely to pay for the installation of baby boxes–or as Murphy nicely calls them, “newborn safety devices.” The fund will match up to $10,00 for each baby box installation.

Since 2023, Missouri has installed 1 baby box located in Mehlville which caught 1 newborn. According to Mrs. Kelsey’s own stats, only 4 discards were reported in the state in the last 7 years; thus, her lonesome box has quelled the epidemic. The following cities are scheduled for boxes:

• Cape Girardeau/Scott

• Cedar Hill/Jefferson

• Jefferson City/Cole

• Joplin/Jasper /Newton

• Maries County

• Mehlville/St. Louis (2nd box)

• O’Fallon/St Charles

• Osage Ambulance District/Osage

• Sikeston/Scot

SHBB Inc prides itself in transparency, yet it seldom mentions the amount of public money paying for boxes as if none exists. As Mrs. Kelsey’s personal Project 2025 goal of a box in every state(it won’t happen) unfolds, we will see more looting of the public treasury. In case you wonder, according to the latest 990 filed with he IRS Mrs. Kelsey pays herself $102,527 a year and her husband gets $81,120 for a tidy total of $183,647. A couple of relatives are also on the payroll.