A newborn baby was surrendered to a Safe Haven Baby Box in Hobbs, New Mexico, last week, marking the third surrender since the location opened in May 2023.
Officials said the infant was safely transported to a hospital for evaluation and is now in the custody of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, NewsWest9 reported.
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.
“As a father and first responder, this is the alternative we want to see,” Hobbs Fire Chief Mark Doporto said. “We much rather see a patient surrendered through a baby box than any other means. This is the safest and most anonymous way to surrender a child.”
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.
“In January 2022, an infant was found in a dumpster 6 hours after his desperate mother placed him there. Today, this community is radically changed by the availability of an option for safe anonymous surrender,” Safe Haven Baby Box founder Monica Kelsey said in a press release.
“Three mothers have selflessly used this location now in under 2 years since the box was blessed and available for parents in crisis. We are pleased to see this community turn the tide on infant abandonment. Mothers in crisis are seeking anonymity; we know this and have seen our boxes’ tremendous impact on communities. This birth mother loved her infant, and we are proud of her selflessness,” she added.
The Hobbs Safe Haven Baby Box was first used in September of 2023, just months after being installed, and then again in May of 2024. In February, another surrender occurred at a baby box in Belen, New Mexico.
The baby box in Hobbs is located at Hobbs Fire Station #1 at 301 E White St, Hobbs, NM 88240, on the east side of the building facing Fowler Street.
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.
According to Safe Haven Baby Boxes, 58 infants have been surrendered to baby boxes since 2017, and 160 surrendered have resulted from calls to the National Safe Haven hotline.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
