THE WOODLANDS, Texas – The Woodlands has introduced the Houston area’s first Safe Haven baby box, providing a safe, legal, and anonymous option for mothers to surrender their infants under the Safe Haven law, also known as the Baby Moses law.
The box was installed at the Woodlands Fire Station Six located at 1100 Windsor Lakes Blvd.
The Safe Haven laws aims to create a designated safe place for parents who cannot care for their children to surrender their babies without any questions asked.
“We just really want to add an additional option for people that are having the worst day of their lives,” said Woodlands Fire Chief Palmer Buck.
The introduction of the baby box comes in response to a troubling trend of abandoned baby cases in Harris County in 2024. KPRC 2 covered six such incidents over three months beginning in June, with at least two infants involved not surviving.
Monica Kelsey, founder and CEO of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, emphasized the need for this service.
“We have to advance with culture. And that’s exactly what the box has done. These kids have got smartphones. They don’t want to go in here and talk to anybody for fear of what they’re going to be asked, for fear of who’s just going to know them. What they want to do is be in and out,” Kelsey said.
Once a baby is placed inside the box, it locks, and a sensor alerts firefighters that a baby is inside. The box also includes a mechanism to regulate temperatures for the infant’s safety.
“Our firefighters know their job is only one thing, to get to that baby. They’re not going to go chase anybody in the parking lot, they’re not going to try to find out what happened. They want to get that baby and start assessing to make sure the baby’s okay,” Buck said.
Magnolia, Spring and Tomball all plan to install the same boxes that officials said start at about $15,000.