A newborn was surrendered to a Safe Haven Baby Box at a fire station in Clermont County, Ohio. 

“The circumstances surrounding the surrender at Union Township — we needed to keep this as quiet as possible,” Safe Haven Baby Boxes founder Monica Kelsey said, according to Local12.

Kelsey said the infant was surrendered several months ago at the Union Township Fire Station. Fire Chief Austin Clements told the local news outlet the baby was healthy, and he is grateful the community has a resource for struggling mothers. 

“Clements said that firefighters followed procedure, handing the case over to the Department of Family Services. Out of respect for privacy, they can’t discuss the specifics of the outcome. However, Kelsey says every baby that’s come through their program has been adopted,” according to the report. 

Baby boxes were created to deter parents from abandoning their newborns in unsafe conditions, 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. Once the baby is inside the baby box the outside door locks and the mother has time to leave before an alarm goes off alerting first responders or hospital staff to the child’s presence.

The baby is then quickly removed and sent to a hospital for a wellness check. From there, the infant is usually placed into state custody and is often adopted quickly.

In Ohio, unharmed infants up to 30 days old may be legally surrendered to baby boxes, hospitals, fire stations, police stations, and EMS providers, according to the organization. 

Ohio saw its first Safe Haven Baby Box surrender last December when a baby girl was left at a box at a fire station in Lebanon. The latest surrender occurred before a new baby box was unveiled at Fire Station #22 on Tuesday in Hamilton, according to the report. 

Safe Haven Baby Boxes also has a confidential National Safe Haven Hotline, 1-866-99BABY1, that provides free counseling and information about safe surrenders, including face-to-face surrenders.

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.