A new Missouri will help to pay for more so-called “baby boxes” to be installed at fire stations. HB 121 will create a $250,000 fund that will be used to match private donations to buy and install more baby incubators. It was sponsored by State Rep. Jim Murphy, R-St. Louis County.
“The box itself is climate controlled. It’s secure,” Murphy told Missourinet. “Once you open the box and place the baby…in the incubator, and you close it, alarms go off within the facility, there’s a call to 911, and there’s even an app that the fire chief would be alerted to.”
The incubators were legalized for use in Missouri in 2021 by the state legislature and then-Governor Mike Parson, with the first one being installed in St. Louis County in 2023. It’s been legal for parents in distress to surrender newborns at designated locations in Missouri ever since the Safe Place for Newborns Act was passed in 2002. But the law has not always prevented tragic endings.
“We found that oftentimes the stigma of face-to-face turning over a baby wasn’t enough because we were still finding babies that were surrendered to dumpsters and alleyways and such,” Murphy said. “So, there was many, many tragic stories about babies being found that way.”
Murphy said baby boxes allow for anonymous surrendering of newborns in a safe location.
Gov. Kehoe told Missourinet that when he first heard about “baby boxes,” he thought it sounded crazy.
“A couple of years ago, when Representative Murphy came to me with the baby box idea, I quite frankly looked at him like he was crazy. And I said, you know, ‘Jim, tell me about this,’” Kehoe said. “And so, he walked me through it. I said, ‘you know what? I think this could be a difference in somebody making a decision on what the future for that young child is in a positive way.’”
The new law will also expand the time limit a parent can surrender a newborn to a baby box without being prosecuted for abandonment from 45 to 90 days after being born. HB 121 takes effect August 28.
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