Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill this week that allows parents to safely and anonymously surrender their newborns to a safe haven box.
The law allows municipalities to install Safe Haven Baby Boxes at hospitals, fire stations, and law enforcement buildings, where new parents can surrender infants less than 72 hours old with no face-to-face interaction.
“I am glad Wisconsin will now be able to provide parents in distress an option to complete anonymity when making the difficult choice to surrender their newborn,” said bill author Republican Rep. Ellen Schutt.
Baby boxes are temperature-controlled incubators often built into exterior walls of the designated places and can be accessed from the inside.
Mothers can safely and legally place their newborns inside before the outside door locks, and mothers have time to get away before an alarm goes off, alerting first responders or hospital staff inside.
“Sadly, this came to a head earlier this year after a newborn was found dead in a field in Whitewater,” Schutt said. “Members of the community came to me expressing an interest in making sure this did not happen again, and I am glad we were able to find a solution and get this law enacted.”
Under Wisconsin’s new legislation, the boxes must be installed in a building that is staffed 24 hours a day, and must be temperature-controlled, ventilated, and monitored at all times with a functioning alarm.
“Expanding safeguards for kids across Wisconsin is a priority for my administration, and this bill provides a solution that will hopefully keep newborns and infants safe from harm,” Evers said. “I will continue to advocate for initiatives that work to make our communities and families safer, and I look forward to seeing more bipartisan bills like this in the future.”
