US to tackle abandonments with ‘baby boxes’

Indiana could become the first US state to allow use of baby boxes on a broad scale to prevent dangerous abandonments of infants if a bill, which unanimously passed the House this week, clears the state senate.

Casey Cox said his bill is a natural progression on laws that give parents a legal way to surrender newborns at hospitals, police stations, and other facilities without fear of prosecution so long as the child has not been harmed.

Many children, however, never make it that far. Dawn Geras, president of the Save the Abandoned Babies Foundation, said safe-haven laws led to more than 2,800 safe surrenders since 1999. However, more than 1,400 other children have been found illegally abandoned, nearly two thirds of whom died.