Northeast Oklahoma Takes the Box of Rocks Approach: Safe Haven Baby Box Needed Because Newborns are Left Safe in Hospitals

Yesterday. KSMF_TV (Joplin, Missouri) reported that a campaign has begun to bring a Safe Haven Baby Box to nearby Grove, Oklahoma. The news story Tragedy of abandoned infants in Northeast Oklahoma, spurs action is a little difficult to follow, but here’s the gist of it:

On February 1, 1988–38 years ago— the remains of a stillborn–Baby Boy Doe– were found in an abandoned house in Ottawa County, in the Northeast part of the state, about a half-hour from Grove. “Around the same time,” a newborn girl was discovered in the Northeast area as well. No date, location, or other information appears in the article. She survived and was “adopted into a loving family and doted on and loved unconditionally. ” The article does not include any reported cases in the area since then, which, if they happened, would boost the argument for a “need ” for a box. It’s pretty safe to assume there have been none

But why should that stop Patti Beth Anderson (aka the Minnie Pearl of Grand River) and her friend Chris Litezke from initiating a SHBB project to create a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist? But according to Anderson, there is a problem, and it is really weird:

Anderson said the dominant pushback against establishing a Safe Haven Box is the misconception that there isn’t a need in northeast Oklahoma.

“But there is,” Anderson said.

While the babies aren’t being abandoned on the side of the road, two newborn infants were left at local hospitals shortly after birth, she said.

This means that mothers :

• follow Oklahoma safe haven law “legal surrender” protocols by grasping their “safe haven privilege” at hospitals where they give birth. OR walk into a hospital and do a traditional face-to-face handover. This speeds up the adoption process by leaving the babies pretty much out of the system and saves the state and hospitals money. Parents who use this program aren’t subject to prosecution unless criminal activity, such as abuse, is found.

or

• leave the baby behind at the hospital after birth without grasping the “safe haven privilege” or showing intentto retrieve later. This slows down the putative adoption process and costs the state and hospitals a substantial amount of money for care and permanent placement. Of course, a newborn who actually “lingers in the system” is as rare as a pork chop at a vegan restaurant. Parents who do this are seldom, if ever, prosecuted.

Traditional Safe Haven v de facto Safe Haven. Either way, babies are safely delivered and in no danger of discard or death. But… but.. wouldn’t stuffing babies in a hole in the wall be better?

The Grove, Oklahoma, scheme is as dumb as a Safe Haven Baby Box of rocks.

1 case in 38 years ago ………. It’s not an epidemic. If only local moms would read the Monster Mom Handbook, dump babies in ditches and dumpsters, and create a “need” for boxes!