Texas’ Baby Moses Law legislates a safe surrender

ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC)- On June 19th, 1999 then Governor George W. Bush signed the Safe Haven Law, also known as the Baby Moses Law, making Texas the first in the nation to enact legislation that protects parents from some legal ramifications in the event they feel they cannot properly care for their infant child that is 60 days old or younger, and must surrender them to the proper authorities. That law was aimed at lowering the amount of infants that were illegally abandoned or in extreme cases, left to die.

Abilene Attorney at Law Brandi Young of Keith & Lorfing Law Firm says the firm has had occasions of representing those that find themselves in legal trouble for infant surrender situations, explaining what exactly some of those parents or guardians might be going through.

“What we see a lot of times, I think on the news, are very vulnerable women giving birth to children in not hospital settings, not knowing what to do. You know, unfortunately, we see babies that are left in unsafe conditions, maybe don’t get the medical care that they need or care that they need. Our legislators saw that, you know, we are not protecting our most vulnerable, our newborn children,” Young said.

Authored and introduced by former Texas State Representative Geanie Morrison, the Baby Moses Law removed some of that fear of surrender for parents that felt they could not provide for their infant child. In 2023, the law was revised to allow for that surrender to a dedicated emergency response infant care provider to be anonymous as well.

“Fear of judgement, fear of prosecution, fear of going to jail whatever the fears may be were stopping some of those parents, some of those mothers from taking the child to a hospital, taking the child to a fire station, taking the child to EMS…admitting and accepting that I can’t care for this newborn, but I’m going to do the best for him or her is really the best gift that any parent or guardian could give their child,” said Young.

The implementation of Safe Haven Baby boxes take that mission a step further, by allowing the parent or guardian to surrender their infant in a temperature controlled environment that will notify the proper care professional immediately so that the child can be retrieved without the guardian having to come face to face with that care professional, further removing fear of judgment that might keep the guardian from surrendering their child safely.

“Particularly here in the Big Country, we want to support that and we want to give absolutely every chance to those newborn that they can have to know that we’re here, not to judge, not to second guess, candidly, not even really try to figure out why. But we want you to know you’ve got options,” Young expressed.

Today all 50 states including the Puerto Rico and the District of Colombia have Safe Haven laws on the books. The first Baby Box in Texas was installed in Abilene just one year ago at Abilene Fire Station 7, 431 N Pioneer Drive. Subsequently 5 other baby boxes have been installed around the state with two in the Lubbock Area. Corsicana, Palestine, and Conroe each having one.

Since 2017 nearly 60 infants in the US have been surrendered by baby box. In addition, the National Safe Haven Crisis line has helped with more that 150 In-person surrenders. That hotline can be reached by dialing 1-866-992-2291 (BABY1).