by 
I’ll keep this short.
Last week the Georgia House passed HB350 to legalize Safe Haven Baby Boxes in the state. The bill is now in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. We will post an Action Alert shortly on how you can help kill the bill.
In the meantime, this news story came out of WXTL-TV, Tallahassee, Georgia Baby Box bill could come to Thomas County. There was nothing unusual about this story, until certified doula and box advocate Brittany Jordan weighed in with what can only be described as tone deafness.
Jordan argued that at-risk pregnant women and new mothers “facing domestic violence, housing insecurity, and perinatal mental health issues, need baby box services to “feel safe.”
“We see the news all the time about babies being found or abandoned,” Jordan said. “We don’t know if a mom has carried because of molestation. We don’t know if a mom is in an abusive relationship. If we don’t have something in place that makes them feel safe, then bad situations can happen.”…
and
It’s hard to raise a baby by yourself,” Jordan said. “If you’re in a bad situation and you don’t have a village of support, you feel so alone.”
No one argues that at-risk mothers do not need a “safe place” to negotiate their options and future for themselves and their babies. No one argues that domestic violence, poverty, mental health problems, and other bad conditions and situations do not exist. Conversely, no one argues that children should remain in abusive situations. No one argues that some people are not cut out for parenthood. No one argues that women should be forced to keep and rear a child.
But how does sticking a baby in a box anonymously and walking away improve the lives of girls and women subjected to domestic violence, molestation, sexual assault, trafficking, poverty, lack of health care services and counseling, or suffering from the social and economic disconnect and dysfunction rampant in the US today? Add the overriding personal shame embedded in this Devil’s mix, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster stamped with the promotion and approval of the state and special interests.
Baby boxing accomplishes nothing but adding another layer of neglect and institutional abuse to the real lives of real girls and women. How does sending mothers back to where large complex problems caused the anonymous abandonment to begin with still exist, improve their lives? Baby boxing simply adds another layer of shame, neglect, and personal and institutional abuse to their lives. We keep going back to the Box Mom that SHBBB Inc reported overdosed and died after the drop-off. What happened? Those who possibly know won’t talk.
We have yet to see any SHBB proponent address the economics, domestic conditions, prejudices, and social practices that can cause mothers to utilize a baby box “solution. They do not address the twin elephants sitting in their room because they are too busy embracing them like a boxed baby: misogyny and patriarchy. How else can we explain box pusher’s lack of advocacy for political and economic change that would present pregnant women, new mothers, and their babies with real options and assistance? (There is much more to say about this in detail, but not today). If the root causes are examined and addressed, the SHBB movement collapses.
As for Brittany Jordan: she should lose her credentials as a “certified doula” for her support of Safe Haven Baby Boxes. Has she not seen SHBB Inc’s 9-minute “PSA” targeted at teenagers that instructs how to hide pregnancy, childbirth, and box dumping , which can create dangerous physical, mental, and emotional health outcomes for those who follow through. That can end in the death of baby and mom. Or maybe Jordan has no problem with that because…you know…if it saves some hypothetical one.
A Safe Haven Baby Box is not a village.
Leave a Reply