LEA COUNTY, N.M. — When New Mexico Senator David Gallegos saw the video of Alexis Avila throwing her baby away in a dumpster in Hobbs, New Mexico last year, he knew something had to be done so this isn't an incident that happens again.
"In a panic, the girl, Ms. Avila shouldn’t have had to dig that deep for a solution. And so that got me to thinking about how do we do this? How do we protect the mom and the child?" said Senator Gallegos.
Stepping into action, Senator Gallegos is now re-introducing a bill for there to be baby boxes placed in all 33 counties in New Mexico to give mothers a chance to surrender their babies in a safe way.
"We just need to give that mom a different choice. To me this is just the last resort for here and I would rather her do this than hurt the child," he said.
If passed, this legislation would require the boxes to be placed at 24 hour fire stations, with each box ventilated and heat regulated with a silent alarm to alert emergency responders.
As for mothers who don't have access to those stations? Well, the help can come to them.
"That’s part of my premise this year of adding the 911 call. Because then we come to you. You don’t have to come to us," said Gallegos. "I’m going to include this time that the mother can call from wherever she’s at, for instance I'm behind Walmart and I'd like to hand my child off and a 911 dispatcher would send police or fire to come there and given her that option."
Giving mothers a safer option is what Senator Gallegos hopes this bill will do.
"So to me each one of these children have value and I look at it as my job to be able to protect them," he said. "My goal is that at some point in time we would never have the fear of another child being in a dumpster and that the mother would feel that we care enough about her to give her the opportunity to have a different outcome and I think this does it."
Alexis Avila's trial is currently set to begin April 11, 2023.