The legislation, which state Rep. Jim Murphy called ‘a pro-life bill that everybody agrees with,’ also expands tax credits for maternity homes and diaper banks and creates a ‘Zero-Cost Adoption Fund’

BY: ANNA SPOERRE
Missouri Independent

A bill that would help fund the installation of rescue boxes for parents in crisis to anonymously relinquish newborns to the state is headed to Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe.

State Rep. Jim Murphy, a St. Louis Republican and the sponsor of the “Safe Place for Newborns Fund,” called his legislation “a pro-life bill that everybody agrees with.” 

That was nearly true. The bill faced no opposition until it reached the Senate, where state Sen. Mike Moon, a Republican from Ash Grove, voted against it Wednesday when it passed 31 to 1. When the bill returned to the House for final approval on Thursday evening, it passed 136 to 1, with state Rep. Bryan Wolfin, a Republican from Ste. Genevieve, as the lone dissenting vote.

The legislation was amended in the Senate where lawmakers tacked on an increased tax credit allowance for maternity homes from 70% to 100% and raised the ceiling from $50,000 to $100,000 per taxpayer per year. The Senate also extended the expiration date on the diaper bank tax credit to 2031. 

The amended bill also establishes the “Zero-Cost Adoption Fund,” which would go toward helping Missourians pay for adoption costs, giving priority to those adopting children in foster care. The fund would be administered by the Missouri Department of Social Services and also provide financial support for community-based interventions to help prevent children from entering foster care. 

“Any time we can make not only the adoption process smoother and more cost-efficient and also put supports in place to ensure that the adoption is successful, that’s an easy yes for me,”  state Rep. Melissa Schmidt, a Republican from Eldridge, said Thursday. 

But the “newborn safety incubators” remained the focus of the bill. These boxes are increasingly popular around the country, allowing parents to anonymously relinquish their infant to the state without criminal consequence for abandoning the child. Under state law, parents who relinquish their infants still have an opportunity to ask the state for custody of their child again in the future.

Six of these safe boxes have been installed around Missouri with four more on the way, all thanks to private donors, Murphy said. One child has been safely relinquished through this method, he said. 

The first box was installed in August 2023 at the Mehlville Fire Protection District in south Saint Louis County. Exactly six months later, the box’s silent alarm went off. Inside the box, first responders found an hours-old newborn. 

In early February, while testifying in support of the bill, Hendricks said he planned to attend the little girl’s 1st birthday later that month with her adoptive family.

“There is no reason in the world we live in that babies end up in dumpsters,” Hendricks told state representatives in February. “We can do better. But the funding is an issue.” 

The fire chief said he receives at least three calls a month from other fire departments and law enforcement agencies interested in installing their own boxes. But in most cases, funding is a major barrier. 

The cost of installing each box is roughly $20,000, Murphy said. This includes equipping the box with temperature controls, alarms to notify first responders the box has been activated and a feature that dials 911. Some are also outfitted with video cameras that show a live feed of the baby. 

The current budget earmarks $250,000 for the program, which would put up to $10,000 toward each box, thus contributing to the installation of 25 more boxes in the next fiscal year.

Murphy told his colleagues that the interest in the boxes spans the state. In Kansas City, for example, one councilman is looking to install six boxes, he said.

During the House hearing on the bill, state Rep. Raychel Proudie, a Democrat from Ferguson, told Hendricks that she was texting the fire chiefs in Berkeley and Ferguson in north Saint Louis County about the technology. 

“I want that box,” said Proudie, who suggested extending the relinquishment period to six or 12 months.

In 2002, Missouri passed a safe haven law that allowed mothers to surrender babies within the first weeks of their lives to staff at hospitals, fire departments, ambulance services, law enforcement agencies, maternity homes or pregnancy resource centers.

Since then, Murphy said, “many, many babies were still found in dumpsters and alleys and places like that,” adding: “The safe haven bill didn’t work as planned.” 

The National Safe Haven Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for “infant abandonment protection,” reports that in 2021, 73 infants were relinquished through Safe Haven laws around the country. That same year, the nonprofit reports, 31 babies were found abandoned in dangerous locations like dumpsters around the country. Of those 31 infants, 22 were found dead. 

During Senate debate Wednesday, state Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Kansas City Democrat, expressed her support for the bill as she addressed Republican state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman of Arnold, who handled the legislation in the Senate, acknowledging both their roles as adoptive mothers. 

“My son was placed in my arms at 13 days. I can’t imagine what his birth mom was going through during those days, but I am so grateful that after 13 days, she was able to place him in my arms,” Nurrenbern said. “That’s what we want for all birth parents in that situation, to recognize that there is a safe place for their baby.”

On Thursday, state Rep. Bridget Walsh Moore, a St. Louis Democrat, accused  Senate Republicans of hypocrisy for passing the baby box legislation then leading a filibuster the evening prior to kill legislation that would have created a child care tax credit.

“These baby boxes are all well and good,” Walsh Moore said. “But if we invested in our families and our working families making sure that mothers are healthy and cared for and that children are safe in child care, then maybe people wouldn’t have to hand their children over to the government.”