Safe Haven Baby Boxes Spreading Like a Virus. Here is What Boxers See for the Future

We keep up as much as possible on Safe Haven Baby Box Inc business. Some of it we write about; some we don’t. Obviously, we don’t know everything that goes on behind enemy lines. Pregnancy Health News “powered by” the “crisis pregnancy center” Behemoth, Heartbeat  International (international headquarters: Columbus, Ohio), published Safe Haven laws, baby boxes, partnerships save infant lives, assist new moms--a review of anonymous birth and baby services, Just what every new mom needs! It’s what you would expect, and not surprisingly, neglects to mention the loud criticism and objection to baby boxes from adopted people, adoptee rights activists, adoption reformers, traditional safe haven advocates, and the National Safe Haven Alliance, whose director Heather Burner was interviewed for the article. You’d think everybody was real cozy with this. That’s not what I’m writing about, though, this morning. This is about the future. Monica Kelsey, the founder and CEO of SHBB Inc quoted some stats in the article that verifies our own research. We already know that the number of baby box installations grows as Mrs. Kelsey ramps up her build -them-and-they-will-come-agenda and the media sits on its hands. As of this writing, there are over 150 active boxes, but according to Mrs Kelsey:

Thirty others are ”at facilities in test phase”–different stages of installation and training—and about 50 orders are being worked on.

That’s 80 new boxes on the way spreading like a virus. It’s one thing to speculate. Another to see it in actual writing, even if we’ve already written that 10 boxes are scheduled for Alabama’s near future. San Antonio, Texas plans to have 10-12 soon! Yes, you read that right! 10-12 baby boxes in one city!  A blog about that is forthcoming. This is kitty litter! MEEOOW!

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We’ve compiled a list, updated daily, of target locations, See if your community is there. Friends don’t let friends or their communities box their babies

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Back in the late 1990s when safe haven laws were just being debated and enacted, and decades before baby boxes were a gleam in Mrs Kelsey’s eye, Peggy Hartshorn, the co-founder, president, and now board president of Heartbeat International had a local radio show on WRFD-AM Christian Radio in Columbus. One afternoon a caller asked her opinion of safe haven laws, Hartshorn seemed taken a little aback and was obviously not familiar with the concept. She paused for a moment and responded that in all of her years of “crisis pregnancy” counseling she had never had one client who wanted an anonymous pregnancy and birth. She seemed genuinely puzzled by the concept. Oh, how times change!

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