A baby was safely surrendered under Iowa’s Safe Haven Law earlier this month, officials said.
The baby girl was born on March 6 and is now in the care of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, KCCI reported. The report did not provide further details on the location or timing of the surrender.
Iowa’s Safe Haven Law allows the surrender of unharmed infants up to 90 days old to hospitals, police and fire stations, EMS providers, and Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
“Parents can also call 911 and relinquish custody to the first responder who takes the call. The process is anonymous and parents are not required to provide personal information. The babies are then placed in foster homes to prepare for adoption,” according to the report.
More than 80 infants have been surrendered in Iowa since the Safe Haven Law took effect in 2002, according to the report.
The state updated its law to allow baby boxes in 2023. Baby boxes were created to deter parents from abandoning their newborns, potentially leaving them to die. Baby boxes are temperature-controlled incubators often built into exterior walls of fire stations, police stations, and hospitals, and can be accessed from inside. At-risk mothers can safely and legally place their newborns inside. Then, the outside door locks, and mothers have time to get away before an alarm goes off, alerting first responders or hospital staff inside.
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 often quickly adopted.
The state has three baby box locations, including in Des Moines, Fort Dodge, and Norwalk. Baby boxes at other locations in the state are in the works.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
