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As expected, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy has signed SB 9, the long-suffering bill that authorizes Safe Haven Baby Boxes in the state. The prolonged discourse over the bill that lasted several years was surprisingly civil. No one’s hair caught fire over it other than Joel Gordon’s, editor of the Alaska Watchman, who has never liked anything to the Left of Christian Nationalism.
To my surprise, though, Monica Kelsey, CEO/Founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes Inc., showed up in Juneau, nearly 2,500 miles from her home in Woodburn, Indiana, for the signing. After the ceremony, she posted a video of herself on social media standing in front of the Capitol building, assuring us that she is doing “Christ’s job,” and speechifying on why Alaska has been desperate for her baby-dump boxes.
The video was full of unremarkable propaganda, featuring this salacious claim that jumped right out-of-the-box:
We know that there have been tons of abandonments in the state of Alaska.
Tons of abandonments ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Alaska has one of the lowest numbers of reported discarded newborns in the US.
According to Alaska State officials testifying at various hearings, in the last 13 years, only 3 discard cases are reported, a figure that no one disputes:
Two deceased infants in, one in Eagle River (2013) and the second in Anchorage (2024), and one live discard in Anchorage (2021).
Moreover, traditional safe haven drop-offs are rare. Since 2008 trad drop-off cases have averaged about 1 per year.
And this : Carla Erickson, chief attorney general for Alaska’s Child Protection Department of Law testified in February 2025, that, in her experience, no anonymous drop-offs are on record within the trad system that allows for anonymity. That is, at least one parent and sometimes both, are either self-identified or “identified by the community.” So, anonymity is not an issue in Alaska, as baby box proponents like to claim. The procedure seems to be used, for whatever reason, as a shortcut relinquishment.
Whenever I come in contact with Mrs. Kelsey’s desperate “truths,” I’m reminded :
The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lie will now be accepted as truth, and truth be defamed as lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world – and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this end – is being destroyed…Hannah Arendt, Philosophy, Politics, and Society
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Enactment of SB9 has received little attention from Alaska media. The only account I have found so far that is not behind a paywall is this piece from the anti-abortion Live Action. If more accessible news coverage shows up, I’ll add it here.
We once more thank Sen. Loki Tobin for her staunch opposition to SB9.
For links to government hearings and news stories about SHBB in Alaska go to our Alaska page.
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Written during London Writers’ Hour Salon.
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