Two newborn babies have been surrendered to a Safe Haven Baby Box in Hobbs, New Mexico, since its installation last year, officials announced.
A newborn baby boy was placed in a baby box at a Hobbs fire station last week, and first responders quickly found the baby “safe and sound,” KOB4 reported on Friday, quoting city officials.
First responders promptly transported the baby to Covenant Health Hobbs Hospital for evaluation, according to the report. The child is now in the custody of the Children, Youth, and Families Department.
Baby boxes were created to deter parents from abandoning their newborns in unsafe conditions, potentially leaving them to die. Baby boxes are temperature-controlled incubators often built into exterior walls of fire stations, police stations, and hospitals that can be accessed from inside. At-risk mothers can safely and legally place their newborns inside. Once the baby is inside the baby box the outside door locks and the mother has time to leave before an alarm goes off alerting first responders or hospital staff to the child’s presence.
The baby is then quickly removed and sent to a hospital for a wellness check. From there, the baby is usually placed into state custody and is often quickly adopted.
The push for baby boxes in New Mexico came after Alexis Avila was seen on surveillance video in 2022 throwing a trash bag with her newborn boy inside into a dumpster in Hobbs, New Mexico, when she was 18.
“The most tragic thing that we can imagine would be a parent that just gave birth, being in such a situation that they feel they have no other alternative but to, you know, place their newborn in a dumpster or some other receptacle,” state Sen. Gregory Baca (R) told local media in February.
The Hobbs Safe Haven Baby Box was first used in September of 2023, just months after being installed. In February, another surrender occurred at a baby box in Belen, New Mexico.
New Mexico’s Safe Haven Act allows surrender of a baby up to 90 days old at a hospital, fire, or police station without any criminal charges.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
