Governor spoke at special dedication
Posted/updated on: April 29, 2026 at 1:10 am
TYLER — Governor Greg Abbott helped dedicate a new Safe Haven Baby Box on Saturday at the CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler. State Sen. Bryan Hughes and State Rep. Daniel Alders will also speak at the event as the new box becomes officially operational. According to our news partner KETK, Safe Haven Baby Boxes allow mothers in crisis to legally and anonymously drop off their baby in a safe and secure location. Thanks to Hughes’ Senate Bill 780, these boxes can now be installed at infant care hospitals like CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital.
“That is Texas, where we build an infrastructure of hope before you even know who will need it and then you pray, you pray that somebody will find it,” Abbott said.
The first Safe Haven Baby Box in East Texas was installed in 2024 at a fire station in Palestine. The dedication ceremony for the new Baby Box started at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
“I saw that in Indiana when baby boxes were implemented, abandonment went to zero, so that’s my goal was to have Texas go down to zero baby abandonment and I knew the answer was to get a baby box,” operating room nurse Amber James said.
Abbott is currently campaigning for his fourth term as governor since his first election in 2014.
