A newborn baby, with umbilical cord still attached, was found near a walking trail adjacent to Austin Highway on the northeast side of San Antonio this week, reports local news source WOAI.
Officers responded to the area around 3:30 pm on November 19th after they received a report of an assault. When they arrived on scene, they found a man carrying a newborn with an umbilical cord attached. The man said he discovered the baby abandoned by a hiking trail near Salado Creek Greenway. He alerted nearby construction workers who called the police.
When police arrived, the unnamed man told them he had seen a woman leaving the area just before he discovered the newborn. Later, Julie Ann Alexander, 37, was arrested for child abandonment/endangerment of a child. Alexander, who is homeless, reportedly gave birth to the baby in that area and then went to a local bar to have a cigarette. Both mother and baby were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. Alexander is currently at the Bexar County jail.
The area where the newborn was found was just down the road from San Antonio Fire Station 24, and the proximity has raised frustrations among local advocates about how this could have been avoided. According to Texas’ Baby Moses or Safe Haven Law, a baby younger than 60 days old can be safely and legally surrendered at any fire station, hospital, or EMS location.
Pam Allen of Eagle’s Flight Advocacy and Outreach, a nonprofit that assists lower-income families, expressed her own concern and frustration.
“This is an act of desperation,” said Allen to News 4 San Antonio. ”If you have a newborn up to 60 days, you can safely surrender that newborn at a fire station, and no charges will be filed against you. Right now, that mother is looking at child abandonment charges.”
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As Live Action News has reported, Safe Haven Baby Boxes add a layer of anonymity to allow parents to surrender infants safely. A parent desperate enough to surrender an infant – such as a mother who may be an addict, or who may be trafficked, or in an abusive relationship – can put her infant in a temperature-controlled box built into the side of a safe location such as a fire station. The box provides critical information and resources for the mother, including how to regain custody of her infant if she chooses. The box is accessed by the mother on the outside of the building; it then locks once the infant is placed inside, and an alarm sounds inside the building to alert fire and rescue personnel to the baby’s presence. In this way, the mother’s identity can be kept secret.
In 2023, Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill expanding Texas’ Safe Haven Laws to allow for the Baby Boxes to be installed. In April of this year, Abilene installed its first box. According to WOAI, last year the San Antonio City Council set aside $438,000 for Safe Haven Baby Boxes to be installed in fire stations like the one near the site of Alexander’s infant’s abandonment. So far, however, none have been installed.
Joe Arrington of the San Antonio Police Department says that’s because they prefer an in-person handoff, removing the critical and sometimes lifesaving choice for a mother to remain anonymous. “As we said all along, we would prefer that person-to-person handoff so we can get the history of the baby. What we stress is it’s not a judgment thing by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just to get the welfare of the baby,” he said to KENS5.
Allen is still hoping to get the word out about the state’s law, and is simply grateful no harm came to the baby in Tuesday’s incident.
“We’ve been kicking around ideas with some of our city leaders about the Baby Moses law on bus stops, doing a QR code having some more information out there,” Allen said to WOAI. “I think the relief for me was knowing the baby was still alive and that the umbilical cord was attached and thinking, here’s one that doesn’t have to be charged with murder, here’s one where she may be charged with abandonment. Thank God that baby is alive.”
Texas currently has the highest infant abandonment rate in the nation, despite its Safe Haven Law.
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