Georgia just installed its very first Safe Haven Baby Box: a secure, temperature-controlled space built into a Henry County fire station wall where a parent can anonymously and safely leave a newborn they cannot care for. It's a lifeline. But one box for the entire state isn't enough.

For years, Georgia parents could only surrender a newborn to a person, face-to-face, at a hospital or fire station. That requirement scared away the parents who needed anonymity most. Lawmakers changed that this year when they passed House Bill 350, legalizing baby boxes and renaming the underlying law the Eliza Jane Warner Act, in memory of an infant found dead in Troup County after her mother left her by a roadside.

Now Georgia needs more than one box. Advocates estimate it costs $20,000 to $25,000 to install, train staff for, and maintain each unit, and they're working to raise up to $125,000 just to expand access within a single county. At that pace, most of Georgia's fire stations and hospitals will go without a box for years.

Every fire station already staffed around the clock is a natural home for one of these boxes. Firefighters are trained, present, and trusted, day and night. Giving them the resources to safely receive a newborn could mean the difference between a baby found alive in a bassinet and one found somewhere no child should ever end up.

Governor Brian Kemp and the Georgia General Assembly should direct funding and support toward expanding Safe Haven Baby Box installations at fire stations and hospitals statewide, so no scared parent and no vulnerable newborn is more than a few minutes from a safe, anonymous option.

Sign the petition to demand Georgia fund more baby boxes now, before another newborn is lost with nowhere safe to go.