The John-Henry Westen Show - Woman conceived during rape and abandoned now on a mission to save unwanted babies

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to this episode of the John Henry Weston Show where I'm very pleased to bring you a guest who is doing the hard work of saving lives in a very interesting way.

00:00:10.880 And she's got a very interesting story.

00:00:12.880 Check out this clip of what she does with baby boxes.

00:00:19.280 When a woman in crisis walks up to one of our safe haven baby boxes, as soon as she opens that door, an immediate 911 call goes out before the child's even placed inside.

00:00:28.340 Once she places a child inside the box, another trip of the alarm goes off with the movement inside of the box.

00:00:35.100 She'll place her child on a pad which is heated with a heating and cooling element underneath that pad.

00:00:40.720 So in the winter months, it's going to stay warm in that box and in the summer months it will stay cool.

00:00:46.180 Once she places a child on the pad, there's a button in there that she can choose to push.

00:00:51.980 And if she chooses not to push, that's okay because we've already been notified and we're already en route to this facility.

00:00:56.340 But that button is very important, I think, for the mother to know that she's the last line of defense.

00:01:03.160 That if she can't do a parenting plan, if she can't do an adoption plan, and if she can't surrender her child to a firefighter at that fire station,

00:01:12.680 that she's doing the right thing by placing her child in an electronically monitored box and then walking away.

00:01:21.320 She's not prosecuted, the child's life is saved, it's a win for everyone.

00:01:27.700 Once she closes that door, it locks.

00:01:31.320 She can't even get her child out.

00:01:32.700 It has to be medical and fire.

00:01:34.980 These children are picked up within three to five minutes,

00:01:37.840 which is an amazing time when you think about how many hours a child is left out in the woods in a trash can or a dumpster.

00:01:45.300 We're going to be talking with Monica Kelsey.

00:01:52.160 Stay tuned.

00:02:11.460 Monica, welcome to the program.

00:02:13.080 Hey, thanks for having me.

00:02:14.180 Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross.

00:02:17.440 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

00:02:21.380 Amen.

00:02:23.340 Monica, your story is a very interesting one.

00:02:26.420 What you're doing is very fascinating.

00:02:28.560 We're going to get to that in a moment.

00:02:29.780 But what I'd like to do, first of all, is let everybody know a little bit about yourself and how you came to this.

00:02:35.760 Well, you know, I'm a medic and a firefighter out of Indiana.

00:02:38.720 And so I've always known about the safe haven law, which was where a woman can walk into any facility and hand her child to a person and turn around and walk away.

00:02:47.480 But it wasn't until I got to meet my biological mother that I realized that this was actually part of my story, where back in 1972, a young 17-year-old girl was brutally attacked and raped and left along the side of the road.

00:03:01.760 And this, of course, was when abortion was illegal in our country, even in the cases of rape and incest.

00:03:06.800 And she pressed charges against the man who had raped her.

00:03:09.060 He was arrested and he was charged.

00:03:10.560 And then if that wasn't the worst of it, she finds out she's pregnant.

00:03:14.180 And she was hidden for the remainder of the pregnancy.

00:03:16.420 And she gave birth in April of 1973 and abandoned her child two hours after that child was born.

00:03:21.760 And that child was me.

00:03:22.640 So my biological father is a rapist and I don't even know my ethnicity, but, you know, I'm still a human being and I still have value.

00:03:30.240 And my life isn't worth less simply because of the way I came to be.

00:03:33.860 And so today I stand on the front lines of not only the pro-life movement, ensuring that every life is saved, but also on the safe haven movement, where it gives women options of surrendering their child legally, safely, and anonymously in this country.

00:03:51.480 It's an amazing, it's an amazing thing.

00:03:54.020 There's a lot of hardship in your life and you've turned that into something beautiful to be able to allow this gift to sort of go forward.

00:04:02.920 It's an amazing thing.

00:04:04.580 So we're going to play a little clip of, we played one in the beginning, a little bit more of an extensive clip of the way this works, the baby boxes work.

00:04:13.820 And I'm going to have you describe it.

00:04:17.540 She's going to walk directly up to the box.

00:04:19.760 She's going to pull the little handle.

00:04:22.560 She's going to open up the door.

00:04:24.320 As soon as this door is opened up, one of the alarms is already going off.

00:04:27.920 It's a silent alarm that mom will not hear.

00:04:30.000 When she places baby inside the box, another alarm goes off that she will not hear.

00:04:38.740 When she shuts the door, she won't be able to reopen the door.

00:04:43.180 The door actually locks once baby's placed inside.

00:04:45.640 The baby can only be retrieved from the inside of the fire station or, in this case, the inside of the hospital.

00:04:52.200 Inside, you'll see a green light that is always green if there is no baby in our box.

00:04:58.120 Once there's a baby placed in our box, you'll see a green plus a yellow, orangish light because the beam from across has been broken.

00:05:06.380 After mom places her baby in one of our safe haven baby boxes, one of the staff or the EMTs or the paramedics or the nurses will come down to the baby box.

00:05:15.600 They're going to open the inside door.

00:05:19.920 They're going to grab the bassinet.

00:05:23.980 And they're going to head for the emergency room.

00:05:26.000 So, if you would, from that, tell us exactly what goes on.

00:05:31.980 There's a lot of questions that people might have around how this exactly works.

00:05:35.880 So, when a woman walks up to one of our safe haven baby boxes and needs to utilize this resource that we have available for her,

00:05:41.980 the only thing she has to do is open that outside door, which alarms 911 immediately.

00:05:47.560 She doesn't have to do anything.

00:05:48.500 She just opens the door.

00:05:49.420 She places her newborn inside the medical bassinet that is inside the box.

00:05:54.760 There's another 911 call that goes out.

00:05:57.080 She doesn't have to do anything.

00:05:58.060 She's just placing her child inside.

00:06:00.180 And then when she shuts the door, the door locks.

00:06:02.180 So, the child is actually locked inside the box to where the child has to be retrieved from the inside of the firehouse.

00:06:09.300 And mom just walks away and knows that, you know, fire and medical personnel will be there within a matter of minutes.

00:06:16.360 The average time is about two minutes for babies in our boxes.

00:06:19.420 Okay.

00:06:20.080 I think one of the very first questions that will strike people is, what if mom changed her mind?

00:06:27.420 What then?

00:06:28.180 What do you do?

00:06:29.020 Is she, like, left?

00:06:30.080 The door's locked.

00:06:30.820 She can't get to her baby now.

00:06:31.900 She's freaking out.

00:06:32.760 What happens now?

00:06:33.700 I presume you've been asked that a lot.

00:06:35.880 I do, actually.

00:06:37.020 And we've had 11 babies in our boxes since November of 2017.

00:06:42.080 And out of those 11, we had one mother come back that wanted to regain custody of her child.

00:06:46.600 And we helped her.

00:06:48.480 We're not just an organization about saving babies in boxes.

00:06:51.280 We're about helping moms through their crisis.

00:06:53.160 And so we put her in our counseling program and worked with the Department of Child Services so that she could regain custody of her child.

00:07:03.060 And so it does, you know, it does happen.

00:07:04.480 It doesn't happen a lot.

00:07:05.420 But we want moms to know that if you're in the midst of a crisis and this is your option and you think twice, two weeks later, a month later, contact us.

00:07:14.700 We'll help you get through this.

00:07:16.100 And if you want to reunite with your child, we'll help you do that.

00:07:19.280 Have you seen testimony of moms later that have been, you know, relieved by this and gone on to do something, you know, that they could do thanks to what's afforded to them by the baby boxes?

00:07:36.140 You know, you asking that question actually brings two moms to mind.

00:07:39.360 And one of the mothers that surrendered, actually, she was the one of the first moms that surrendered in one of our boxes.

00:07:45.600 And she contacted us eight days later.

00:07:49.240 And this is common because they want some of the resources and they want to make sure that their child is safe and healthy.

00:07:54.720 And so she contacted us and she has went back to school to get her degree.

00:08:01.700 She is also now a volunteer for our organization.

00:08:05.700 And so you'll you'll be at events with us and not realizing that she's actually somebody that has utilized our program.

00:08:12.340 And now she is a registered nurse at a hospital.

00:08:15.420 And so that's just an amazing story that that she finds peace with with helping us, you know, make sure that women have this safe option.

00:08:23.960 Another mom that comes to mind is a letter that she left with her child.

00:08:31.700 In one of our boxes when she surrendered and it just basically said how much she loved this child and she didn't want to have to do this, but she knew that this was the only option for her to keep this child safe.

00:08:42.040 And she contacted us afterwards and she is now also a volunteer for our organization.

00:08:47.860 And she allowed me to place that letter that she wrote to her child in my book that just came out last week.

00:08:57.180 And so you can read her words, her letter that she left with her child in the box in my book.

00:09:05.000 And it's just an amazing letter that just shows her heart and her love for her child.

00:09:09.800 This is so great.

00:09:10.480 This is a real opportunity to actually save lives in a very kind of a unique way to help mothers who are in need of help.

00:09:18.520 How can people support what you're doing?

00:09:20.280 Well, you know, that's that's a big question I think all of us ask is, you know, what can I do to help you?

00:09:26.360 And right now, you know, we're a nonprofit organization.

00:09:29.820 I refuse to take government funds.

00:09:31.520 I refuse to take state funds because I want to be able to pray with these women.

00:09:35.020 If they call our hotline, I want to be able to pray with them.

00:09:37.600 And I don't want someone else dictating what I can and cannot do through, you know, through our hotline.

00:09:42.940 And so donations, you know, monetary donations, we also get donated blankets for our baby boxes.

00:09:49.540 Each location takes two blankets, two mattress covers and two hats, you know, and we get those donated as well.

00:09:55.580 So if you don't want to give money, you can always donate items.

00:09:59.660 And and but of course, you know, we wouldn't be able to put boxes in if we didn't have the monetary donations that we get.

00:10:05.760 Where do you have your boxes?

00:10:07.520 And, you know, how does that process even work?

00:10:10.360 How does that get done?

00:10:11.120 Well, it's a process.

00:10:12.640 It definitely is a process.

00:10:13.660 And we have our baby boxes at firehouses and hospitals when, you know, this had never been done in America before.

00:10:19.580 And so when I started researching this, I knew that I needed to have medical attention or medical personnel on the other side of that box.

00:10:26.640 Because the babies that were being abandoned that I was trying to save had their placenta still attached and their umbilical cord.

00:10:33.260 I mean, these were brand new babies that needed medical care immediately.

00:10:36.680 So I chose firehouses and hospitals because there's medical care waiting on the other side of that door.

00:10:41.160 And so those are the two locations that we, um, we place our baby boxes in, but it is a process.

00:10:47.500 I have to come in and train the fire department, um, on the boxes, on the safe haven law.

00:10:52.660 Um, we have to get the community involved.

00:10:54.840 I mean, I can put boxes in firehouses, but if no one knows they're there, no one's going to use them.

00:10:59.940 And so, um, it's been very successful in Indiana and Arkansas that we're working with tirelessly and, and Ohio.

00:11:06.600 Um, but in Indiana, when I launched in April of 16, we were averaging about two dead babies in our state every year from abandonment.

00:11:14.040 And we have not had a deadly abandonment in Indiana since we launched our boxes.

00:11:19.280 And we've had a record number of babies in our boxes.

00:11:22.300 Wow.

00:11:23.160 That's awesome.

00:11:24.600 Tell us on the other side, uh, have you talked to any of the, uh, you know, the, the, the healthcare professionals or the firefighters who are there and get it?

00:11:34.700 Have you got reaction from them?

00:11:36.100 Have any of them commented to you about this?

00:11:38.060 Oh my gosh.

00:11:38.780 So we just had a baby in our box on May 2nd, um, a couple of weeks ago and the fire chief from Clarksville, Indiana.

00:11:45.780 Um, he, I think he's still on cloud nine because, you know, as a firefighter and that's what, you know, I've done for many years.

00:11:51.960 We see the end of life.

00:11:53.600 We very rarely see the beginning of life.

00:11:56.240 And so when a baby is placed in that box or that box on May 2nd and the fire chief was there to retrieve that child, um, there's nothing like it.

00:12:04.540 There, there really isn't.

00:12:05.940 It's just a love for a child that, um, you never thought was there.

00:12:09.900 And the press conference, the following day that we, we held for this, the surrender really shows the fire chief's, um, reaction of just overwhelming love for a child, um, that was placed in his box.

00:12:23.800 It's just a beautiful thing, but they, they are, they, they, they love this program.

00:12:27.520 I mean, they don't want to pull a baby from a dumpster.

00:12:29.620 They would rather pull a baby from a box.

00:12:31.660 Awesome.

00:12:32.020 Let's watch a clip of that now.

00:12:34.540 All I can say is, wow.

00:12:36.900 Yesterday was, uh, probably one of the most amazing days of my career as a firefighter here.

00:12:41.600 Like Monica said, six months ago, we blessed this box and yesterday it delivered a blessing.

00:12:46.480 Um, the baby was, was beautiful.

00:12:48.820 It was a very emotional experience for the firefighters.

00:12:52.160 And, you know, we get to experience a lot of, uh, the end of life.

00:12:55.960 And yesterday we experienced the beginning of life.

00:12:58.240 Um, and, um, the baby was, was, um, was not in any distress.

00:13:04.520 It was cared for by emergency medical technicians that we employ here as firefighters.

00:13:09.340 And, um, I even got to use my parenting skills of 14 years and was able to swaddle the little girl myself.

00:13:15.880 Ah, absolutely beautiful.

00:13:20.020 So I tell you what, uh, life site is going to enable people to donate to your incredible work through what we call life funder.

00:13:29.240 Uh, life funder.com is our site where it's basically a GoFundMe alternative.

00:13:33.600 That's pro-life and pro-family.

00:13:35.460 And, uh, so we're going to be setting that up for you and making, uh, available an easy way for people to support your awesome work.

00:13:43.400 So please, any, any parting thoughts for, uh, those who are, especially those who are very interested in helping you out.

00:13:49.620 Well, you know, just get involved, you know, um, whether it be on the local level where you're from or a financial, you know, partner, or, you know, just educating the youth in your area.

00:13:59.580 Um, because we need to get the information to these kids if we expect them to use the law.

00:14:04.740 Um, but you know, it takes everybody.

00:14:06.600 It's a community effort.

00:14:07.700 It's not a Monica Kelsey effort.

00:14:09.200 It is a community effort that has to rally around these young, these young parents to make sure that they make good choices.

00:14:15.260 And if I'm in a community where there is no baby box and I want one, how can people reach out to you, uh, for your help in, in setting one up?

00:14:22.160 They can go to shbb.org, um, and send us a message on our contact us form.

00:14:27.640 We'll send you information and tell you exactly what you need to do to get a box in your community.

00:14:31.960 And we, we've streamlined it.

00:14:33.700 So you just go step by step.

00:14:35.980 Awesome.

00:14:36.760 Monica Kelsey, thank you for being with us on this episode of the John Henry Weston show.

00:14:40.260 Thank you so much for having me.

00:14:41.920 God bless you and God bless all of you.

00:14:44.420 We'll see you next time.

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The John-Henry Westen Show - May 27, 2021

Woman conceived during rape and abandoned now on a mission to save unwanted babies

Summary

Transcript