Safe Haven Baby Box to be installed in Danville

by: Bode Brooks

Posted: Aug 29, 2023 / 05:00 PM EDT

Updated: Aug 29, 2023 / 07:08 PM EDT

DANVILLE, Ky. (FOX 56) — A central Kentucky city is now the latest to offer a Safe Haven Baby Box to the community. By the end of the year, 34 Safe Haven Baby Boxes will be operational all across the Commonwealth. The newest one, located in Danville, is now the closest one to Lexington. It’s the product of a law signed two years ago.

“It was a bipartisan effort that everyone felt that it was something that they could get behind,” Rep. Nancy Tate (R-Brandenburg) told FOX 56. In 2021, House Bill 155 passed both chambers unanimously, which brought the boxes to Kentucky and was an expansion of a 2020 Safe Haven Law.

“The child is going to be taken care of fully within 4 minutes of you dropping off that child, there’s going to be an EMT tending to that child and it’s going to be in, you know, proper care from here on out,” Danville Deputy Fire Chief Mike Mulholland told FOX 56.

The $16,000 box was paid for by an anonymous donor. Danville Fire received it about two weeks ago. Inside the climate-controlled box are several sensors to alert firefighters when precious cargo arrives.

“When they shut the door, the door locks. You cannot get the door back open,” Mulholland said. “We will take the bassinet with the child out. We will contact EMS. Our EMTs will provide patient care until EMS arrives. Then they will be transported to McDowell Regional Medical Center, and then they will take care of it from there.”

“Whenever I first started investigating the Safe Haven Baby Boxes, unfortunately, there was a baby that was found that had been placed in a garbage bag and thrown out on the road,” said Tate, who sponsored the 2021 law expanding the rules around using baby boxes.

The original 2020 law said within 30 days of birth, a mother could surrender her child to a hospital, police station, fire station, EMS provider, or staffed place of worship, baby box or not. The addition of boxes adds an extra layer of anonymity and eliminates any paperwork. Three Kentucky babies have been surrendered in boxes just this year.

“It’s a very sad situation when you have to choose not to be able to keep your baby. But I applaud these women and these families for choosing life,” Tate said.

The Danville baby box will be installed in the fire station on the city’s bypass sometime in the next week, where it will go through a round of testing before it goes online.

“It’s a very sad situation when you have to choose to not be able to keep your baby. But I applaud these women and these families for choosing life,” Tate said.

The Danville baby box will be installed in the fire station on the city’s bypass sometime in the next week where it will go through a round of testing before it goes online.

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