Company Says Use of Baby Drop-Off Boxes for Abandoned Babies Has Risen Since 2022

Pamela Stenzel was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, giving a talk about the benefits of Safe Haven Baby Boxes when a woman pitched her a difficult question. In a conservative-leaning Midwestern city such as Sioux Falls (population 202,100), are the baby drop-off boxes just a “solution in search of a problem?” The answer came the next day on Aug. 6, when workers at the city’s recycling center found the body of an infant boy left in the trash. Stenzel, the director of development at Safe Haven Baby Boxes, said the incident highlights a troubling trend: mothers abandoning their newborn children in growing numbers out of fear, lack of education, or desperation....