Officials confirmed the first surrender of an infant at a Safe Haven Baby Box in Mississippi.
The baby was brought to Covington County Hospital in Collins safely and anonymously in late December. Hospital staffers cared for the child, who is now in the care of state professionals legally obligated to look out for the infant’s safety and well-being.
The Baby Box, made available by House Bill 1318 in 2023, was installed at Covington County Hospital as part of ongoing efforts to enhance child safety. The feature offers parents in distress a chance to surrender a baby up to 45 days old if they are unable to care for the newborn without fear of prosecution or other repercussions.
“The plan worked. Our leaders recognized that we needed the Safe Haven Baby Box Law, so they passed the law,” Covington County Hospital CEO Gregg Gibbes said. “We rallied our community for support in paying for the new Baby Box and they stepped up. When a distressed mother in our community needed it, they used it. And our staff did a great job of caring for the newborn child.”
Mississippi’s first Safe Haven Baby Box was unveiled at the Long Beach Central Fire Station in August 2023. Since then, four more locations across the state have been added, with plans to have at least 10 to 15 additional locations by the end of this year.
According to former House Speaker Philip Gunn, who presided over his chamber when the Baby Box bill became law, this is an opportunity to help mothers and babies in a post-Roe v. Wade Mississippi. Gunn, a Republican from Clinton, addressed a common critique that pro-life advocates don’t promote the health and well-being of a baby after his or her birth.
Critics argue that those who espouse anti-abortion rhetoric are merely looking to force a prospective mother to carry her pregnancy to term without any consideration for what happens to the child afterward. Acknowledging that claim, Gunn argued that the legalization of the Safe Haven Baby Box program in Mississippi proved Republican lawmakers’ dedication to meeting the needs of a mother and child even after birth.
“Pro-life people particularly always get hammered because they say, ‘You don’t care about the baby after they’re born. Y’all just want to get them bord and then you abandon the mama and the baby.’ We’re not going to stand for that,” Gunn said Wednesday during a Covington County Republican Women luncheon. “We’re going to show that we are pro-life all the way from cradle to grave.”
“You have a mother, she doesn’t know what to do,” he continued. “We want to offer an alternative to abortion where she can have the baby and deliver the child at the Safe Haven Baby Box and know that her child is taken care of and is going to be safe.”
More information about Safe Haven Baby Boxes in Mississippi can be found here.
