Firefighters are dedicated to saving lives, and fire stations have long been places where mothers or parents in crisis could safely abandon an infant or child.

The creator of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, Monica Kelsey, took that tradition and created a tool and a program to provide an alternative to unsafe abandonment. The temperature-regulated boxes are placed in fire stations’ outer walls and babies can be safely left inside.

Once inside the box, the door locks and an alarm alerts officials of the baby’s location. The infant is retrieved within five minutes and taken in for a medical examination.

Baby Box No. 205 was blessed Tuesday afternoon at Farmington’s Fire Station 2, 3800 English Boulevard. It was the seventh box to be placed in New Mexico.

“This is a good day for New Mexico,” Kelsey said. “I am fighting hard from Indiana for your women and your children of this state, and I will continue to do that.”

Kelsey said the baby boxes have saved two babies in the past five months in New Mexico. “We are just getting started,” she added. “You know last year and the year before, New Mexico has kind of had a bad rap with babies being left in unsafe places. Some of them died.”

Kelsey said that while one baby was left in a dumpster for six hours, a baby placed in a Safe Haven Baby Box will only stay in it for three minutes. “This box will save the lives of children. I don’t think it’s a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.”

Kelsey shared a personal story of a 17-year-old girl, who in 1972 was brutally, sexually assaulted and survived. The teenager found out she was pregnant and had the baby, because abortion was not legal at the time. However, the baby girl was abandoned two hours after being born.

“That child was me,” Kelsey said. “So I stand on the front lines of this movement as one of these kids that wasn’t lovingly and safely and legally and anonymously placed in a Safe Haven Baby Box by a parent that wanted me. But I’ll tell you what this is my legacy, and I am their voice.”

Kelsey created the baby boxes in 2020, and since the first was installed in Indiana, there has not been on abandonment resulting in the infant’s death, according to Safe Haven Baby boxes.

“This initiative has reaffirmed mothers in crisis can safely and securely surrender their newborns,” Farmington Fire Chief Robert Sterrett said, as he opened the ceremony.

The Safe Haven Baby Box initiative was brought on Aug. 22 to the Farmington City Council by Farmington Realtor Bryan Crawford.

“I didn’t realize there was a big push to get them in New Mexico and the reality of it is there wasn’t a massive push in Farmington,” Crawford said, adding he called his friend and neighbor City Councilor Janis Jakino to share with her stories about child abandonment in the state and why a baby box for the community would be a good option.

“Immediately we started having conversations and there were some concerns that came up, but everybody, who had the opportunity to do the right thing along the way did the right thing,” Crawford said.

Jakino took the initiative to the Farmington City Council, and the council agreed to investigate the baby boxes, and then decided to install one at Fire Station 2.

“We are often accused in government of not working very quickly, but here we are on this beautiful day celebrating life and celebrating opportunities for people, who may not have had them before,” Jakino said, noting it only took seven months from the first discussion to the baby box blessing.

An abandoned infant, by definition, is one that is under the age of 90 days old and is left alone and not left in a safe place.

Because abandonment is a problem across the U.S., safe haven laws have been created to allow for the safe abandonment of a child.

New Mexico has a Safe Haven Law that allows a mother or father to “walk into any hospital, police station or fire station and abandon their child without fear” of being charged with the crime of abandonment.

“To be covered by the law, you must notify somebody you are leaving the infant. You cannot leave your baby alone,” according to guidelines found on the state’s Child, Youth and Family Department website.

The New Mexico State Legislature budgeted $330,000 for the placement of baby boxes in its 33 counties. Each county received $10,000, said New Mexico Sen. Bill Sharer of Farmington.

Sharer said there was push back from some in the legislature on the funding of baby boxes, and he does not understand why. “It’s pretty simple. This isn’t stopping someone from having an abortion, it’s simply giving them an option to do something different.”

State Rep. Rod Montoya of Farmington said the state’s abortion law is so lenient it resembles abortion laws in North Korea and China. A big proponent of the baby boxes, Montoya said, “life in New Mexico has not been valued.”

Montoya stated the devaluation of life can be found in crime and child abuse cases in the state.

“This gives women, who feel like they don’t have another option, an option,” Montoya said, noting the legality of safe abandonment. “This offers a solution for someone who just wants to do the right thing and just doesn’t feel like they can.”

The installation of the Safe Haven Baby Box was a total of $25,000, with $10,000 from the state and another $15,000 from private donors. There is an annual $300 fee paid by the city of Farmington to Safe Haven for maintenance of the box.