Senate passes bill allowing safe surrender of infants

The Senate has passed by a vote of 33-4 a measure that would allow newborn infants to be placed inside boxes at certain locations to prevent them from harm.

Ocala Republican Sen. Stan McClain presented the bill (SB 1690), which substituted Eustis Republican Rep. Nan Cobb’s companion bill (HB 791).

“It allows parents an alternative to surrender their infant in an infant safety device and avoids the possibility of abandonment,” McClain said of the bill. “The bill also allows for hospitals and EMS stations, and fire stations to have the device onsite.”

During the bill’s debate, Boynton Beach Democratic Sen. Lori Berman said she would not be voting “yes” on the bill and noted that other devices that have already been installed around the state have not been utilized.

“I’ve seen this bill in three committees, and I voted ‘no’ every time,” Berman said. “I’m going to be voting ‘no’ again today. We put these baby boxes into law several years ago, and it’s been used one time. One time in two years. And there is one manufacturer who makes these baby boxes.”

Berman added that she thinks the legislation is unnecessary because there are already existing laws that allow a parent to surrender their child.

“I don’t see why we need these. We already have a procedure in law. If you want to drop an infant off, you can drop them off at the fire station, you can drop them off at the hospital,” Berman said. “I will continue to be a ‘no’ on this bill.”

Jacksonville Democratic Sen. Tracie Davis also said she was against the bill, adding that she has concerns about some of the language around anonymity.

“I will be joining my colleague and voting ‘no’ against this. She’s laid out a number of challenges. I think we both have. The additional one that I would like to add is the fact that we have a 24-hour surveillance system, and most of these places where a baby is being dropped off, but we also talk about the person having anonymous surrender,” Davis said.

“That’s a conflict for me. We have cameras set up at fire stations. There’s cameras at hospitals. And if the person is going to be anonymous turning in a child, then they’re being captured on camera,” Davis added. “So, the anonymous factor is truly not there, and I’ll also be voting ‘no’ on this bill.”

Palm Harbor Republican Sen. Ed Hooper supported the bill and noted that during his time spent in fire stations, infants would be dropped at the front door, but those working inside would often not realize a baby was there because there was no alarm system.

“Every station I was at had a big sign out front, yellow sign, ‘safe place.’ You were encouraged to drop your baby off at the front door of the office. Guess which door never gets used by a fire station employee? The front door of the office,” Hooper said.

Hooper said he thinks the new measure would be better than a simple safe place at a fire station or EMS station.

“A person could drop off a newborn at that door with no alarm, if you didn’t hear the cry of the child, you would never know that a child was there,” Hooper said.

“I think this bill takes that step. And there’s no guarantee that a malfunction will never occur, but the fact that that system has an alarm that goes off and is inside of that safe structure gives me the comfort to know this is better than ‘safe place’ by leaps and bounds.”

In closing, McClain said no one would be mandated to install an infant safety device, but they would be able to if they wanted.

“For me, it’s always about if we can save one life, and I believe that this is a safe system,” McClain said.

“It’s in 300 locations throughout the United States; there’s two of them currently in my county. There’s one actually in another county that I now am Senator of, in Levy County. They just installed one there, and we’ve seen that this system has been safe and that it has worked, and it’s monitored 24 hours a day. It’s tested twice a week; there’s a whole set of protocols that go along with that any time a local government decides that they want to do something like this. We’re not mandating anybody to do anything.”