The move comes after a string of incidents, going back to November, involving abandoned babies in San Antonio.
SAN ANTONIO — Child and family advocate Pam Allen has teamed up with VIA Metropolitan Transit to raise awareness of the Baby Moses Law, a decades-old measure that allows parents to safely and legally surrender their newborns without facing prosecution.
“Of course we’re all aware of what’s happening in our city,” Allen said, who is the founder of Eagles Flight Advocacy and Outreach. “We saw three months of deadly abandonments. Two of them survived, one did not.”
The latest incident happened on Tuesday when authorities say a dead fetus was found in a diaper bag in a dumpster at an apartment complex in the 3500 block of West Avenue.
Allen is partnering with VIA to install signage about the Baby Moses Law inside city buses, reaching an estimated more than 87,000 riders each day. The initiative aims to connect with people who might otherwise not be exposed to this life-saving information.
“We are so excited about this latest collaboration and what it could do for helping us spread the awareness and making sure that our babies are safe,” Allen said.
The Baby Moses Law, enacted in Texas in 1999, allows parents to anonymously and safely relinquish custody of a baby up to 60 days old, at designated safe havens without facing legal consequences.
These safe haven sites include hospitals, fire stations, EMS stations and certain clinics that display the Safe Baby Site logo. A 2023 update to the law permitted the use of Safe Haven Baby Boxes at the specific sites, which are temperature-controlled and alert first responders when a baby is placed in the box.
“To be able to get it to everyday people, ordinary citizens who are on the buses, who may not have time to watch the news,” Allen said. “The bottom line is this, if you need to safely surrender your infant, you can take that baby to a fire station, to a hospital, to a clinic.”
The signage is expected to be installed by the end of the week. In addition, Allen plans to begin outreach inside the Bexar County Jail, educating inmates about the Baby Moses Law in hopes of preventing future tragedies.
“We just want to make sure every parent, regardless of their situation, knows they have a safe option,” she said.