Officials gathered Wednesday to celebrate the opening of the state’s eighth Safe Haven Baby Box, a spot where parents can drop off a newborn anonymously and without fear of prosecution.

The box, located near the ambulance entrance of USA Children’s and Women’s Hospital, is the first in southwest Alabama and the first in the state to be attached directly to a hospital. Among those present was Alabama Rep. Donna Givens, R-Foley, who as a freshman legislator launched the bill that authorized the use of the baby boxes in the state.

“To me, if someone makes this choice, to put a baby in a box, they’re doing it out of love,” said Givens. “Because they’ve had the baby, they know they can’t care for the baby. Or they know they’re in a bad situation and it’s best for the baby to be placed with someone that would love the baby and give the baby a hope and a future.”

Givens described the boxes as a threefold boon: use of them may save the life of a baby, may save a mother from grief and may help fulfill someone’s wish to adopt.

“A young lady, sometimes at no fault of her own, realizes she cannot keep a baby. So instead of making a mistake, something she would regret for the rest of her life, something she could be charged with manslaughter, this gives her the opportunity to place a baby in a box where it’s lovingly going to be cared for the minute that buzzer sounds,” Givens said. “Someone picks up that baby, they call DHR, they take the baby to the hospital, to make sure the baby is healthy, see to any need the baby would have, and the process begins.”

Givens thanked hospital officials for their role. She also thanked Gov. Kay Ivey, for throwing her support behind a piece of legislation offered mid-session by a freshman legislator.

Givens’ 2023 bill modified Alabama law in place for more than a decade. Since 2000, Alabama law has allowed parents to surrender infants up to three days old at hospitals and not be charged with abandonment. The 2023 act allows the surrender of infants up to 45 days old at Baby Boxes attached to the exterior walls of fire stations staffed around the clock by emergency personnel.

The first in Alabama was installed in Madison in January, and a newborn girl was left in it Jan. 21. In July, the seventh was opened in Jasper. Others are in place in Prattville, Dothan, Ozark and Tuscaloosa. As of May, three babies had been left, all in the box at Madison’s Fire Station No. 1.

Kids to Love, a private foundation based in Madison, offered to provide the first 10 Safe Haven Baby Boxes in the state, with funding from an anonymous donor. Safe Haven has limited its relationship with Kids to Love, which provides private adoptions, to maintain “a strict policy to stay completely out of the adoption process.”

Lee Marshall, founder and CEO of Kids to Love, told AL.com in the summer of 2023 that Mobile, Tuscaloosa, Madison, Gadsden and Scottsboro had committed to using the boxes. Foley Fire Chief Joey Darby said at the time that he wanted to make one available in Baldwin County.

Givens confirmed that on Wednesday. Foley was waiting on a Safe Haven box to be delivered, and it soon will be installed at a city fire station, she said.

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, who was on hand for the blessing of the new box, said they city had been planning to put a box at a fire station, though USA Children’s and Women’s had taken the lead. “Part of our long-range vision is to have more of these baby boxes all over the city and I’ll let you know when the second one will be opened at Station 12,” Stimpson said.

The boxes, which include a climate-controlled incubator and alarms to alert responders when a baby is placed within them, cost about $20,000. They’ve grown in popularity across the country in recent years. Critics argue that they’re a feel-good solution that make it easier for communities to avoid grappling with issues that might lead mothers to think of abandoning babies in the first place, such as domestic violence, homelessness and difficulty obtaining mental and physical healthcare. However, safe haven laws in general and the baby boxes in particular have tended to enjoy broad bipartisan support. Givens’ bill passed both houses of the Alabama legislature with unanimous support, a rare feat.

Locations of Safe Haven Baby Boxes in Alabama can be found on an online map. More information on the boxes can be found at https://www.shbb.org/about.