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Safe Haven Box & Abortion Public Comment from Russell SiasOne Email. One Life -Saving Box. Tennessee Just Changed the Game for Babies in Crisis. Safe Haven Baby Box At Hospital Means Child Will Get Immediate Care (Shutterstock) It started with an email. Not a lobbying campaign. Not a well -funded political organization. Just a woman named Amber Mohr, a resident of Nolensville, Tennessee, who looked at her fast-growing community and thought — we need to do better for the most vulnerable among us. So she sat down and wrote to her city commissioners. That email became history. This week, Nolensville unveiled Tennessee's first -ever hospital -based Safe Haven Baby Box, installed at TriStar Nolensville ER. It is the 28th Safe Haven Baby Box in the state and the 420th in the nation. And it matters in ways that go far beyond a ribbon -cutting ceremony. What a Safe Haven Baby Box Actually Does — And Why It Saves Lives Let's be honest about what we're talking about here. These boxes exist because desperate mothers — women in genuine crisis — sometimes make unthinkable choices. Babies Page 1 of 3 left in trash cans. In dumpsters. In porta-potties. Jessi Getrost with Safe Haven Baby Boxes doesn't sugarcoat it. "It's just heartbreaking to see these that happen when they're abandoned in unsafe places, she said. They want to do the right thing, but they're scared. They don't want to face somebody." So the box gives them a way out. Anonymous. Safe. No questions asked. A mother places her newborn inside, an alarm alerts medical staff, and that baby is immediately cared for. The mother walks away without facing arrest, without shame, without a confrontation she cannot handle in that moment. This is what it looks like to actually help women in crisis — not lecture them, not prosecute them, not abandon them. Meet them where they are, give them a real option, and save a life in the process. Why a Hospital Safe Haven Box Is Different From a Fire Station Most Safe Haven Baby Boxes are located at fire stations, and those stations are staffed around the clock. Firefighters will respond the moment an alarm is triggered. That system works. It has saved lives. But here's something worth understanding about how the program actually works: Safe Haven Baby Box protocol requires that every infant surrendered at a fire station be transported to a hospital for a mandatory medical evaluation. That means the hospital was always the final destination — the fire station was just the first stop. The Nolensville box eliminates that stop entirely. Nick Howald, CEO of TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center, put it directly. "We always have board -certified physicians, we have nurses, we have a full-fledged ER right here in Nolensville that's manned 24/7," he said. A potentially distressed newborn goes from the box to a physician in minutes — no transport, no handoff, no delay. That mandatory medical evaluation happens immediately, right where the infant was surrendered. For a baby whose medical history is completely unknown, that's not just protocol. It's the best possible start to a second chance at life. The hospital setting also offers something Getrost pointed out — flexibility. A mother could walk directly into the ER, deliver her infant, and invoke the Safe Haven law on the spot. Or, if she goes home first and realizes she cannot care for the child, she can return and use the box. Two pathways. One location. No dead ends. Page 2 of 3 How Tennessee's Safe Haven Law Network Deeps Growing What Amber Mohr set in motion is worth appreciating. She wasn't a politician. She wasn't a professional advocate. She was a neighbor who cared — and she acted on it. Her email to city commissioners started a process that moved fast. In under a year, hospital leadership, city officials, and the Safe Haven Baby Boxes organization had worked together to bring the box to life. The Nolensville mayor personally reached out to the hospital. CEO Nick Howald called it "an absolute yes." That's what community -driven pro -life work looks like. Not a protest. Not a lawsuit. People at every level — a resident, a mayor, a hospital CEO, a nonprofit — deciding that protecting life is worth their time and effort, and then doing the work. Getrost says the organization has now helped more than 186 parents safely surrender an infant, including 76 placed directly in Safe Haven Baby Boxes. Nationally, about three babies are surrendered safely every single week through this program. Three babies a week. Alive. Because someone built the box. Infant Abandonment in America — And the Network Fighting Fit mi The Nolensville box joins a growing Middle Tennessee network that now includes locations in Columbia, Tullahoma, Springfield, Hendersonville, Murfreesboro, and Lawrenceburg. The map is filling in. The gaps are closing. And the model is simple enough that it can spread anywhere. A community member asks. Local leaders listen. A hospital or fire station says yes. Lives are saved. No legislation required. No court battles. No waiting on Washington. Just people who decided that a baby's life is worth an email, a phone call, and a box on the wall of an emergency room. If you or someone you know is a parent in crisis, call or text 1-866-99BABYI or visit SHBB.org. Page 3 of 3 Jacksonville 1 1 19 to 0 to Put Baby Boxes at 14 Fire Stati1 Cityscape image of Jacksonville, Florida. (Shutterstock) Last year, 22 babies were illegally abandoned across America — and 11 of them died. Now one Florida city just answered with a unanimous vote. Jacksonville's City Council just voted unanimously to install safe haven baby boxes at 14 fire stations — and the vote tells you everything about where this movement is headed. Jacksonville City Council Votes Unanimously to Install Safe Haven Baby Boxes City Council member Rory Diamond filed the legislation. The council voted 19-0 to approve it. Mayor Donna Deegan said she supports it too. The city will spend $314,900 to put the boxes in fire stations across all 14 City Council districts — one in every neighborhood, no exceptions. The vote wasn't even close. One council member, Michael Boylan, had initially questioned whether the city should start with four boxes instead of 14 to gauge demand first. His colleague Randy White changed his mind. "If it saves one life, it's worth it for all 14," White said. Boylan voted yes. Page 1 of 3 How Safe Haven Baby Boxes Work at Fire Stations A safe haven baby box is a temperature -controlled, ventilated bassinet built into the exterior wall of a fire station. A mother in crisis opens the door, places her baby inside, and walks away. The door locks automatically from the outside the moment it closes. A silent alarm immediately alerts firefighters inside the station. The baby is retrieved within minutes and transferred to a hospital for evaluation, then placed in foster care on a path to adoption. No names. No questions. No criminal liability. Florida has had a safe haven law since 2000, which allows parents to surrender infants anonymously to hospital workers or firefighters face-to-face. The boxes extend that same protection for mothers who can't bring themselves to hand a baby to another person directly — women who might know the firefighters, women overwhelmed by shame, women who would otherwise make a desperate and deadly choice instead. The difference between a baby in a box and a baby in a dumpster is a door on the side of a fire station. Monica Kelsey and the Story Behind Safe Haven Baby Boxes Monica Kelsey founded Safe Haven Baby Boxes in 2015. She didn't do it because it was a good policy idea. She did it because she was the baby in the story. Kelsey was abandoned two hours after her birth at a small Ohio hospital in 1972. Her biological mother had been brutally raped, hidden from the world throughout the pregnancy, and stood in front of an abortion provider ready to end it — then changed her mind at the last moment and chose life instead. Kelsey was adopted, raised, joined the Navy, became a firefighter and medic. And then, on a trip to Cape Town, South Africa, she walked past a church and saw a baby box built into its wall. She came home and sketched the concept on a napkin on the flight back. Ten years later, more than 400 Safe Haven Baby Boxes are installed across 24 states. More than 70 babies have been safely surrendered in them. More than 5,000 infants have been saved through safe haven laws since Texas passed the first one in 1999. Page 2 of 3 How Jacksonville's Baby Box Program Could Expand Across Florida Diamond said the 14-station footprint was intentional. "We've already talked with folks in Nassau County and Clay County and St. Johns County," he said. "They've picked up the challenge and they're going to have them all over their counties." That's how this movement spreads — not through federal mandates, not through billion -dollar programs. One city council votes 19-0, and neighboring counties follow. Georgia just passed the Eliza Jane Warner Act — named for an infant found abandoned — authorizing baby boxes at Hospitals and fire stations statewide, awaiting Governor Brian Kemp's signature. Colorado's legislature approved baby box expansion 65-0 in the House and 35-0 in the Senate. Every one of those votes was a human being deciding that a baby's life is worth a door on the side of a fire station. The left wants you to believe that the only way to help a mother in crisis is to end the pregnancy. Jacksonville just proved there's another answer — a $314,900 answer, installed in every neighborhood, available 24 hours a day, where a baby goes in and comes out alive. Diamond expects the boxes to be in place by late summer. Not a moment too soon. Sources: • David Bauerlein, "Jacksonville sends message on'baby boxes.' What are they?" Florida Times - Union, April 15, 2026. • Safe Haven Baby Boxes, "Our Story," shbb.org. • Pregnancy Help News, "A Busy New Year for Safe Haven Baby Boxes," January 15, 2026. • Daily Citizen, "A Look at Safe Haven Baby Box Legislation Across the U.S.," Focus on the Family, April 2026. • Time magazine, "Why Baby Boxes Are Suddenly Everywhere," October 8, 2025. Page 3 of 3 A New House Bill Would Force Abortion Pill Providers to Stop Flushing Baby Remains Into America's Drinking Water dlgkkL C111 ONO . ......i Mr. i Environmental engineers work at a wastewater treatment plant. Often processed water that is discharged into rivers is used for fresh drinking water by communities downstream. (Shutter stock) The abortion industry has been dumping 50 tons of chemically tainted blood, placenta tissue, and human remains into America's waterways every single year. Nobody told you that. They were counting on you not to find out. Today, that changes. What the Abortion Industry Has Been Flushing Into Your Drinking Water Here is what has been happening in your water supply since the Biden administration removed in -person safety requirements for abortion pills in 2023. Over one million abortions take place in America every year. More than 60 percent of them now happen at home, by mail, with no doctor present. When a woman takes mifepristone — the first drug in the chemical abortion process — it starves the unborn child of the nutrients needed to survive. Page 1 of 4 Twenty-four to forty-eight hours later, misoprostol induces contractions that expel the remains. And then, in the vast majority of cases, those remains get flushed down the toilet. No catch kit. No biohazard bag. No medical oversight. Just human remains — and the hormone -blocking chemicals that caused the death — going straight into America's water treatment system. Here is how it gets into your tap. Flushed waste travels to a municipal wastewater treatment plant. Those plants were built to remove bacteria, solids, and common contaminants. They were never designed to filter synthetic hormone compounds. Mifepristone is a synthetic progesterone blocker. When it passes through the body, it leaves behind active metabolites — chemical byproducts that remain biologically active even after the drug has done its work. Standard treatment does not neutralize them. They pass through largely intact. From the treatment plant, that water gets discharged into rivers, lakes, and reservoirs — the same bodies of water that feed municipal drinking water intakes downstream. The water gets treated again before it reaches your tap. But that treatment targets bacteria and sediment, not synthetic hormone metabolites. This is the same mechanism that has made pharmaceutical runoff a recognized environmental concern for years. Mifepristone's active metabolites belong in that same conversation. Mifepristone is not on the EPA's list of chemicals that water treatment facilities are required to track. Your utility company has no idea how much of it is in your water. The Clean Water for All Life Act Would End the Abortion Pill Free -for -All On March 18, 2026, Congresswoman Mary Miller of Illinois introduced the Clean Water for All Life Act. Standing alongside Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins at the Capitol, Miller made clear exactly who she is going after. "The murder -for -profit abortion industry is not only ending innocent life but is also polluting our water, endangering women, and operating with virtually no accountability," Miller said. "Every year, more than 50 tons of chemically contaminated medical waste, including blood, placental tissue, and the remains of preborn children are flushed into America's water systems as a direct result of chemical abortion pills." Page 2 of 4 The bill does three things. First, it ends anonymous telehealth abortion pill prescriptions. A doctor must be physically present. A physical examination must take place. No more pill mills mailing mifepristone to patients they have never met. Second, it requires a biohazard catch kit with every dose of mifepristone — a red bag medical waste system with instructions for returning the remains to a healthcare provider for proper disposal, exactly the way every other home medical procedure involving biological waste is handled. Third, it creates real penalties. Doctors who violate the law face up to five years in prison and fines of up to $50,000 per incident. Fourteen Republican co-sponsors signed on immediately, including Reps. Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Diana Harshbarger, and Tim Burchett. Why the Mifepristone Catch Kit Approach Is Brilliant Hawkins has been sounding the alarm about abortion water pollution since before COVID — before mifepristone became a national flashpoint, before the FDA stripped away the safety requirements it had maintained since the drug's approval in 2000. Hawkins has the data to back it up. "What we have found through our own research is that in three metropolitan areas where we tested the water, the three active metabolites that are only found in the chemical abortion drug mifepristone are actually in our drinking water," Hawkins told EWTN News Nightly. Her framing of this bill is exactly right. "If you take the word 'abortion' out of this, it's an easy win," said Students for Life's Kristi Hamrick. "Other businesses are not allowed to dump what the EPA calls pathological medical waste in America's drinking water." She is correct. Hospitals cannot flush biological waste. Medical facilities have strict disposal requirements. The abortion industry alone has been given a pass to dump human remains into the public water system with zero accountability. The bill also closes the door on the anonymous pill trafficking pipeline that has been shipping abortion drugs into pro -life states. No physical presence requirement means no accountability for who receives the pills, no way to know if a patient is being coerced, and no follow-up care if something goes wrong — as it does for one in ten women who take the drug, according to a 2025 study from the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Page 3 of 4 That is not healthcare. It is a mail-order death delivery service with no return address. The Trump Administration Needs to Act Pro -life leaders are growing impatient with the Trump administration. SBA Pro -Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said at a Capitol press conference last week that efforts to get the administration to reinstate mifepristone safety regulations have reached a "dead end." "We are waiting. We are waiting. We are waiting," Dannenfelser said. "And I think we've passed the point where we decided this is a dead end." Miller's bill is the answer to that dead end. Senator Josh Hawley has introduced separate legislation to strip the FDA's approval of mifepristone entirely. Miller's Clean Water for All Life Act takes a different approach — one grounded in common sense and environmental concern rather than a direct ban. Nine in ten young voters support conducting wastewater and environmental studies on mifepristone, according to a January 2026 survey from Students for Life's Demetree Institute. Even people who support abortion do not want human remains in their drinking water. That is the argument. And it is a winning one. Page 4 of 4 A Grieving Husband Lost His Wife and Then Spent 25 Years Saving Babies From Dumpsters Nick Silverio lost his wife of 32 years in a car accident on December 7, 1999. A few months later, a magazine article about infant abandonment stopped him cold. He believed it was God telling him what to do with the rest of his life. How Nick Silverio Built Florida's Most Trusted Infant Surrender Network Gloria Silverio loved children the way some people love air — completely and without condition. She and Nick had suffered two miscarriages and never had children of their own, but they were godparents to 14 kids and poured themselves into every niece and nephew in their family. When she died, Nick was devastated. He started looking for a way to keep her memory alive — something worthy of who she was. That magazine article pointed the way. Florida had just passed a Safe Haven law in 2000, allowing a parent to surrender an unharmed newborn at a fire station, emergency medical facility, or hospital — no questions asked, no criminal charges, complete anonymity. The problem was that nobody knew about it. Nick Silverio — an IT professional with no background in social services — decided that was going to change. He used his own savings to create the Gloria M. Silverio Foundation and launched A Safe Haven for Newborns in 2001. He got Safe Haven signage placed at fire stations and hospitals across all 67 Florida counties. He built a 24/7 multilingual helpline. He trained over 25,000 healthcare and law enforcement professionals at no charge. He assembled a statewide network of agencies covering counseling, prenatal care, shelter, transportation, postpartum support, and adoption services. Twenty-five years later, 437 babies are alive because of what he built. What Happens When a Woman in Crisis Calls A Safe Haven for Newborns Every call to the helpline is different. Girls as young as 13. Women as old as 43. Women who hid their pregnancies. Women nearing childbirth with no prenatal care. Women abandoned by their families. Women who are homeless. "Each call to the helpline is unique. Be ready, and begin by listening with an open heart," said Nick Silverio. "You can't always know the struggles someone is facing, but your understanding can make all the difference." The organization's Direct Surrender Method is exactly what it sounds like — a mother walks up to a fire station or hospital, places her newborn in the arms of a trained professional, and can walk away anonymously and without legal consequence. "This is a profoundly emotional moment for both the mother and the person receiving the infant," said Page 1 of 2 retired Miami -Dade Fire Rescue firefighter Janice Matos. When a mother calls the helpline, she doesn't just get a referral. She gets access to a living network — someone to drive her to a prenatal appointment, a women's shelter bed if she has nowhere to sleep, counseling for whatever brought her to this moment. If she's about to give birth and has no one, they direct her to the nearest hospital. If she needs food, they get her food. Some mothers have changed their minds after getting help and raised their children themselves. Six parents were helped to successfully reclaim their parental rights after initially surrendering. Seventy- five mothers, comfortable forgoing anonymity, worked directly with a licensed adoption agency to choose their baby's family. Over 6,000 women have been helped through the helpline since 2001. Why Infant Abandonment Still Happens in Florida and What This Program Does About It Florida enacted its Safe Haven law in 2000 after a wave of newborns were found in dumpsters, trash cans,. ditches, and canals across the state. In January 2024, a roofing crew showed up for work at a Hollywood, Florida job site and found a dead infant in the dumpster they were about to throw debris into. Twenty-four years after the Safe Haven law passed. In a state with one of the most comprehensive safe surrender networks in the country. The baby still ended up in a dumpster because a mother in despair didn't know she had another option. That is the gap A Safe Haven for Newborns exists to close — not just through the surrender option itself, but by reaching mothers before they ever get to that moment of crisis. Before panic makes a terrible decision feel like the only one. This past Easter, as families across Florida gathered and gave thanks, 437 children sat at tables somewhere because a desperate mother called a number, or walked through a fire station door, and found a human being on the other side ready to help. Nick Silverio named the foundation after Gloria because that is what she would have done. He just made sure the whole state could do it with him. If you know someone who needs help, the A Safe Haven for Newborns helpline is free, confidential, and answers 24 hours a day: 1-877-767-2229 in Florida, or 1-844-767-2229 nationwide. Sources: • Nick Silverio, "A Safe Haven for Newborns Offers Critical Support and Safe Options for Women Facing an Unplanned Pregnancy," EIN Presswire, April 2, 2026. • "Safe Haven for Newborns founder honored for Catholic faith, legacy saving infants," Catholic Review, September 13, 2023. • "Over 300 babies saved by organization providing safe haven for moms and newborns," Christian Post, October 7, 2023. • A Safe Haven for Newborns, "Safe Haven Statistics," asafehavenfomewborns.com, accessed April 2026. • "After a baby ended up in a South Florida dumpster, is a'safe haven' law enough?" WLRN, January 25, 2024. Page 2 of 2 An Avoidable Tragedy U https://mailchi.mp/a486263f2d54/an-avoidable-tragedy9e=1Df9afa2e73 Subscribe Past Issues Translate View this email in your browser f i ,Safe Hciven I Bab,,; Boxes Recent headlines out of Palm Coast, Florida have left many of us heartbroken. A college student, overwhelmed and in crisis, made a devastating decision that resulted in the loss of her newborn's life. It's a tragedy that impacts not only that child, but the mother, her family, and an entire community. As difficult as it is to process, this moment also underscores something critical: this did not have to end this way. Across the country, Safe Haven laws exist to give parents in crisis a safe, legal, and anonymous option to surrender their newborn, no questions asked. In Florida, a parent can surrender an infant up to 30 days old at designated safe locations like hospitals, fire stations, and emergency medical services along with calling 911. Safe Haven Baby Boxes expand that option further, offering complete anonymity and immediate care for the infant. When a parent feels trapped, afraid, or alone, knowing there is a safe alternative can make all the difference. Too often, these tragedies occur out of lack of awareness. That's why education and outreach are essential. Every parent deserves to know, there is a way to protect yourself and your infant. There is a compassionate option. There are people ready to help. At Safe Haven Baby Boxes, our mission is to ensure that no parent feels like they have nowhere to turn, and that no child's life is lost when a safe, loving alternative exists. We cannot change what happened in Palm Coast. But together, we can work to prevent the next tragedy. We need to make sure our information is in front of the eyes that need to know about safe surrender most. That when they are searching the internet and social media looking for answers that we are who meets them with peace and hope. Please help us make sure we get to those next parents in crisis. Support Our Outreach 1 of 2 3/23/2026, 12:33 PM