Southampton Volunteer Ambulance Headquarters Now A 'Safe Haven' Location

The Southampton Volunteer Ambulance headquarters will now be a designated “Safe Haven” spot—a place where mothers can drop off unwanted infants without legal repercussions.

Under the “Baby Moses” law, mothers in New York State are able to relinquish newborns to designated Safe Haven locations without question, and without being slapped with child abuse charges. The Southampton Volunteer Ambulance barn on North Sea Road is now one of those locations—on Monday night, ambulance volunteers received training from Timothy Jaccard, president and director of the AMT Children of Hope Foundation’s Baby Safe Haven Program.

According to Mr. Jaccard, the Southampton Volunteer Ambulance is the first ambulance company on the South Fork whose volunteers received the necessary training to be a Safe Haven location. All hospitals and firehouses are designated spots, meaning that mothers can also take their babies to Southampton Hospital or any fire department.

Mr. Jaccard said that when a baby is relinquished to a Safe Haven, the now-responsible agency has to take the infant to the nearest hospital, where he or she is given a medical examination. After the baby has been cleared, a representative from the nearest child services agency comes and takes the baby into custody, eventually placing the child in a foster home.

Under the “Baby Moses” law, 2,999 infants have been saved in the state, said Mr. Jaccard, who works as a medical officer with the Nassau County Police Department. He pointed out that before he helped enact a similar law in Texas in 1999—New York approved it a year later—he knew of far too many instances where women killed or unsafely abandoned unwanted babies. “It was just stunning,” he said.

With Southampton Volunteer Ambulance now a designated Safe Haven spot—noted with a sign outside the barn—Mr. Jaccard said the community has the opportunity to educate teenage girls, for example, on what to do if they have a baby but cannot keep it. Mothers can call 1-877-796-HOPE if they are considering giving away a newborn.

Mr. Jaccard is working on getting other ambulance companies involved.