Pretty wild! All states give you at least 30 days to dump your baby, no strings attached. Some states give you 60 days!

I feel like more people should know about this! It seems like a highly under utilized ability.

    • droans@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      10 minutes ago

      It doesn’t have to be fire stations. But they are commonly used for a few good reasons.

      They’re relatively ubiquitous. It shouldn’t be hard for someone to locate a fire station. They’re almost always staffed 24/7. They’re trained on basic first aid. Quite often, they’ll even have medics on staff.

      Very importantly, though, they don’t have a lot of people coming in and out of them. One of the big benefits of this program is that there are zero questions asked and it’s as anonymous as you wish. The people who use these are often afraid they’ll be judged as a failure. The lockboxes have a built-in time delay so you can leave before the station is alerted.

    • KelvarCherry [They/Them]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 hour ago

      Fire stations are public utilities owned by local governments. Also, hospitals are regularly visited by people, whereas fire stations are more private as they mainly send out and return from dispatches.

    • GarboDog@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      6 hours ago

      Fire stations are more anonymous, however you can give up rights to your child at Fire Stations, Police Stations, and Hospitals (far as we know) there are even some numbers and child protection will pick them up. Reason is because they rather take the child safely than deal with well… yk

    • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      11 hours ago

      Fire stations are everywhere, staffed by trustworthy people, who inevitably also have medical training. Additionally they aren’t scary like the police are.
      They’re the people you call if you need help.

      You can surrender an infant at a hospital too, as well as a police station, but fire stations are just more frequent.

    • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      13 hours ago

      Hospitals in the US are kind of scattered, largely as a result of private equity tomfoolery. A lot of communities don’t have one nearby. But pretty much every community has at least a volunteer fire station, and I believe all firefighters are required to be trained in at least first aid, if not be fully-qualified EMTs.