The 400th Safe Haven Baby Box nationwide opened at a Texas hospital on Friday afternoon.
The new baby box opened in Texarkana at the Texarkana Emergency Center-Hospital at 4646 Cowhorn Creek Rd., providing a safe, anonymous option for parents in crisis, KSLA reported.
“It’s a great day when we bless any box, but today it’s extra special since it’s box 400,” said Mariah Betz, assistant project coordinator for Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
Baby boxes were created to deter parents from abandoning their newborns, potentially leaving them to die. Baby boxes are temperature-controlled incubators often built into exterior walls of fire stations, police stations, and hospitals that can be accessed from inside. At-risk mothers can safely and legally place their newborns inside. Then, the outside door locks, and mothers have time to get away before an alarm goes off alerting first responders or hospital staff inside.