Events leading up to the relinquishment of a child by any method, is not the first crisis in a mother’s life. How does sticking a baby in a box anonymously and walking away arrest that crisis and improve the lives of girls and women subjected to domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking, poverty, substance abuse, 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 and disempowerment of anonymous baby abandonment 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
California AB2073: Bastard Nation/SHBBN Joint Testimony–Assembly Public Safety and Judiciary Committees. Opposed
The number of reported discard cases throughout the US has remained steady—a little over 30 a year– since the Safe Haven Baby Box concept was introduced 10 years ago. According to the CDHSS Office of Child Abuse Prevention, discards in California plummeted from 20 in 2001 (7 surviving and 13 deceased) to 3 in 2024. (1 surviving and 2 deceased, making the discard rate in the state, one of the lowest in the country.