Safe Haven Baby Boxes, Inc Says It’s “Unfortunate” It Can’t Control the Adoption Process of their Boxed Babies

I don’t know if “disturb” is the correct word to describe my discomfort with this. Perhaps “horrified” is a better word.

Several times now I have read Mrs. Kelsey, founder and CEO of Safe Haven Baby Boxes Inc, complain that Safe Haven Baby Boxes Inc has no control over whom their boxed babies are placed with for adoption. The latest remark was posted on Facebook. about a month ago under the thread, “This box goes live next Wednesday in Ohio.”I have a horrible time making screenshots so this is a cut-and-paste. You can doom scroll it (October 19) yourself, but there were, according to FB, 1000 comments under that post.

• DontTrust Asoul If someone drops off a baby girl I would absolutely love to have her
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    Author Safe Haven Baby Boxes Latisia Mobley As with all Safe surrenders, the infant will be medically evaluated and then turned over to DCS (Every state has a specific name for their department of children services). Unfortunately we don’t have any control over the adoption process. To be considered to adopt a safe haven baby, you must register as a foster parent with the intent to adopt. The best way to do this is to contact your local DCS. Hope this helps.

I am baffled as to why Mrs. Kelsey finds her organization’s inability to personally place boxed babies for adoption “unfortunate.,” Her disappointment, along with similar statements she’s made over the years, implies that in a better world she and her organization would control boxed baby distribution.

MEOW!!!!!! The baby box company is NOT in the child placing business, nor should it be. It is not an adoption agency. It is not an adoption law firm. It does not include a licensed social worker on staff. It does not perform home studies. What in the world would qualify it for such a serious task?

Moreover, SHBB Inc is not an adoption facilitator, (no license required). A sleazy match-making business that is illegal in some states, and if we are lucky will eventually be banned by federal law. Bill Pierce, the founding president of the National Council for Adoption–the man who basically corporatized modern adoption secrecy in the US and is the godfather of the traditional safe haven movement– once told my Putative Boss, (PB) that if he ever became the Adoption Tsar of the US–or something like that–the first thing he would do would be to run facilitators out of business. That’s how bad facilitators are.

Not one single Safe Haven advocacy organization or the National Safe Haven Alliance is involved in adoption placement, nor do they seem to want to be. They perform educational and counseling services. They don’t, unlike SHBB Inc, sell a product or evangelize. It would be safe to say, in fact, that SHBB Inc is a commodifier that works in vendor and ministry modes and will skirt the law to sell its box and baby product to politicians, the media, and the public.

I remember some time back when the SHBB worked with a pregnant woman in New Jersey who was considering a safe haven drop. but then decided to go a normal adoption route. Mrs. Kelsey recruited prospective adoptive parents (I believe they had to have a current home study) on her Facebook page. She asked them to send her their current home study and adoption packet which she would forward to the woman to study and hopefully choose. A couple from (surprise!) Indiana was selected to adopt her unborn child. Did Mrs Kelsey vet submitters to fit her own criteria for a “proper forever family?” Did she recommend favored her couples or direct a choice to Indiana friends or acquaintances? I am not sure if this little contest would fall under adoption facilitation since the “service” was performed for free presumably, but it comes close It was certainly ethically questionable. That it was advertised on Facebook makes it dirtier. As I said, adoption facilitation is illegal in some states, and I know complaints have been filed with Facebook and with various authorities in other states when similar offers were posted there.

Cats are curious, as you know, and this makes me curiousier and curiousier as I write. What’s the end game? States, such as Michigan, Florida, and Illinois (but there are more ) outsource their safe haven baby placements to private adoption agencies. Gregory Luce, from the Adoptee Rights Law Center and Marley Greiner (the PB) have researched and written about this practice., which can bring in around $60,000 per baby to private industry. Michigan is the most corrupt. I don’t see Greg’s work online, but he and PB have discussed it. You can read PBs blog here. If Greg sends me a public reference to his work I will post it