A bill that would allow for the installation of so-called “baby boxes” — temperature-controlled chambers with bassinets, installed in the exterior walls of places like hospitals where mothers can anonymously relinquish their infants — could unleash a slew of safety, legal and ethical issues in a state where infant abandonment is exceedingly rare.
The bill has sparked concern from the Office of the Child Advocate and others. Existing laws already allow parents to give up infants anonymously in Connecticut.
“I think people are looking at this because they want to make a difference and prevent babies from dying. We all want that. We just need to do that in a way that is safe for babies and moms,” said Acting Child Advocate Christina Ghio.
Once a baby is left in the box device, alerts are sent to staff and to 911 dispatch centers. In Connecticut, the boxes are being considered for hospital emergency rooms, and if the bill passes, the installation of the boxes would be voluntary.
Advocates of baby boxes say that the bill would create a safe alternative for parents to drop off newborns anonymously for those who don’t want face-to-face contact with hospital staff. It’s an option they believe could save lives and protect babies from abuse and neglect.
Erica Maver, a nurse, testified to the Committee on Children that the boxes are well-thought-out devices that incorporate a crisis line and medical information. They would come at no cost to hospitals or taxpayers because they are paid for through donations. Maver has fundraised for a baby box to be installed in Connecticut, according to her Instagram page. If successful, Connecticut would be the first state in New England to have a baby box.
But opponents of the bill have concerns about the implications of baby boxes for mother and child. For one, the boxes are made by only one company in the U.S., Safe Haven Baby Boxes, and are unregulated, which some argued could lead to unforeseen safety issues in the event of a blackout or technological problem. A baby was recently found dead in a baby box in a church in Italy, where a priest said he never received a notification linked to his cellphone, though that box was not made by Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes are concentrated in the Midwest. Indiana, the home state of Safe Haven Baby Box CEO Monica Kelsey, an anti-abortion activist, has more than 100 of the boxes.
Opponents of the bill also say Connecticut’s existing “safe haven” laws already provide a way for parents to drop off infants 30 days or younger to a hospital emergency room anonymously without facing any legal repercussions, and that the boxes would not capture additional babies but rather encourage parents to leave the baby in a box instead of benefitting from a “warm handoff” between a parent and member of hospital staff.
They say that handing a baby off to a medical professional offers the possibility that parents will avail themselves of resources like medical treatment, social and economic supports and counseling that may make the difference between permanent separation and the possibility of reunification, or may make the process of permanently relinquishing a baby less traumatic for both parent and child.
They also worry that a mother may unwittingly break the law by placing an infant older than 30 days into one of the boxes.
Dr. Clara Lewis, a professor at Dartmouth College and the author of “American Infanticide: Sexism, Science, and the Politics of Sympathy,” told the Committee on Children that women at risk of neonaticide are not capable of transporting themselves to the box. She also raised the concern that a mother may have her baby taken from her and placed in the box, thereby concealing a crime.
“If the mother is a victim of human trafficking the baby could be placed in the box without her knowledge, therefore causing further harm to her. Other examples would include an attempt to cover up incest or rape,” she told lawmakers.
Lori Bruce, the Associate Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics at the Yale School of Medicine, has studied the issue of baby boxes around the world and in other U.S. states for years, particularly since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. She was surprised to see the movement for them to come to Connecticut, where there is no evidence that infant abandonment is on the rise, and said she thinks the bill reflects a nationwide desire to help families in distress. But, Bruce says, there is little evidence to support the need for baby boxes here.
According to the OCA, which receives all critical incident reports about child abuse and neglect and all reports of the unexplained deaths of children, there is no reason to think Connecticut’s safe haven laws aren’t working as intended.
Since 2020, only one case of abandonment, in which a premature infant was left on the hood of a car in Mansfield and survived, was captured after multiple revisions of OCA data, Ghio said. Fifty-seven children have been relinquished under under safe haven laws in Connecticut since 2001, according to public testimony to the Committee on Children.
During that testimony, proponents of the bill echoed the idea that babies are being abandoned in Connecticut and that these cases may not make the news. Dr. Elizabeth Simonetti, a pharmacist, said that she supports the boxes because of concerns that babies are being abandoned in dumpsters.
“The reason we don’t hear about them is because if we find them, they are not alive,” she said.
But the OCA and the Department of Children and Families said that perception does not reflect their data.
“I’ve been responsible for the state care line for a long time, and I haven’t had that experience,” said Michael Williams, the Deputy Commissioner of the Department Children and Families. “Thank God we have the safe haven laws and parents can drop a newborn off at a hospital and walk away. We see that maybe one to two times a year.”
Ghio, the Acting Child Advocate, said her office has concerns about the safety of the devices and whether, given the data that the OCA reviewed, there are other risky scenarios affecting newborn safety that could be addressed and would ultimately prevent infant fatalities.
For example, in its data, the OCA found three instances of minors who gave birth at home without help to a baby that died.
“I don’t know that the availability of this device would have changed anything for those girls,” Ghio said. Those deaths also raise the question of whether the existence of a baby box might discourage mothers from entering the hospital at all — even when they are in labor — ultimately leading to more deaths during unassisted home births. “I worry about any messaging that suggests that giving birth at home alone is a viable alternative. It’s not safe for young girls to do that.”