Indiana has introduced a baby box for parents to anonymously drop off unwanted newborns in safe locations.
The Safe Haven Baby Box is an extension of the state's Safe Haven law, which allows parents to have complete anonymity when giving up an unwanted newborn younger than 45 days without being arrested or prosecuted.
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The Indianapolis Star reported that two boxes have been installed at two fire stations, one in Woodburn, Indiana, and another in Michigan City, Indiana.
The organization that provided the boxes, Safe Haven Baby Boxes, was founded by Monica Kelsey.
According to the organization's website, Kelsey was a product of rape and abandoned when she was two hours old. She now works as an anti-abortion advocate and a volunteer firefighter.
"I was abandoned as an infant back in 1973, so I've always been very close to the safe haven law," she told NBC News.
"Monica has made it her personal mission to educate others on the Safe Haven Law and to do whatever it takes to save the lives of innocent babies from being abandoned," the site said. "The baby boxes takes the face-to-face-interaction out of the surrender and protects the mother from being seen."
The boxes are heated and padded incubators that alert emergency workers when a baby is placed inside.
But the baby boxes are not without critics.
The State Department of Health wrote a report that recommended the boxes not be used and that efforts to increase awareness of the Safe Haven Law should be made instead.
The report said that although there is limited research on the outcomes of newborn safety incubators, longer-term studies in Europe did not result in a reduction in unsafe abandonment or infant death.
"This is not criminal. This is legal," Kelsey told The Associated Press. "We don’t want to push women away."
But Kelsey said the boxes should be considered a "last resort" for other options under the Safe Haven Law.
"They're the last line of defense that we are going to give these women," she said.
The Knights of Columbus of Indiana, a Catholic fraternal service organization, will pay for the first 100 baby boxes. The boxes cost $1,500 - $2,000 each.
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