SAN ANTONIO — A bill being considered in the Texas Legislature would update the State’s “Baby Moses Law” for the first time since it was passed over 20 years ago.
When an infant dies from being abandoned in the San Antonio area, Pamela Allen sees that they get a proper burial. In the ten years that she and her organization, Eagles Flight Advocacy, have been helping with burials, she said they helped over 40 children be laid to rest.
She said it takes a toll.
“There have been many times, especially with the abandoned babies, that they've asked if I wanted to go and hold a baby,” Allen said. “And that's just not anything that I can allow myself to do."
Allen said their journey started after a 2013 incident when the body of a newborn was found in a duffel bag in a waste management facility.
The baby was born on December 20. He never got to see Christmas. Allen adopted the child so she could take on the responsibility of burying him. She named him Noel.
"He was just going to be that trigger for us and for many others to get involved in the Baby Moses Law," she said.
Allen says she later spoke with Noel’s mother in prison. There, she learned that didn't know about the Baby Moses Law.
"This is so preventable. This law is very simple," she said. "If a mother cannot take care of their child 60 days or younger, unharmed, they can go to a fire station or anybody, anyone that displays this safe baby site logo, and they could just safely surrender that child to the people inside that building."
But she says knowing the law isn't always enough.
"We've heard so many stories about babies dying on the property of a fire station because they didn't want to go up and be confronted by anyone."
Texas was the first state in the nation to pass a Baby Moses Law allowing new mothers to legally give up an infant they don't feel prepared to care for. Many states have passed their own safe haven laws since, but Texas’s law has not been updated since it was passed in 1999.
A bill to allow for secure, temperature-controlled "Newborn Safety Device" often referred to as a "baby box" at participating fire departments passed the Texas Senate last month.
The vote was unanimous.
The bill is scheduled for a hearing in the House later this week. City officials and state leaders including the bill's Senate Co-author Jose Menendez (D-San Antonio) joined Allen Saturday at the San Antonio Fire Museum, urging its passage.
The devices have been in use in other states for years. Allen herself has been trying to get them approved for use in San Antonio for quite some time. Allen called the device “A box that can save a life.”
"The baby box would be another step in the right direction of amending a law that's already saving lives," she said.