TOKYO – A social welfare corporation based in the capital’s Sumida Ward revealed on Sept. 28 that it is planning to establish a “baby hatch” at one of its hospitals in the ward in fiscal 2024 to anonymously accept infants whose parents are unable to raise them.
The standard joke for this type of thing is: I wonder what the cut off age is or I wonder if it will fit my teenager.
Ok, that out of the way…with the very small birth rate in Japan I doubt it will receive much traffic.
My mom’s probably wondering if it’ll take 40 year olds.
Japan’s birthrate was apparently at its lowest ever last year but that still meant 800k babies, so there might be a few dropping by the hatch.
So you would think, but although South Korea (for example) has a similar low birth rate, their baby boxes gets plenty of traffic, unfortunately.
People who have the largest barriers to contraception, abortion care, sexual health care and education are the the ones most likely to have their children end up in baby boxes.
There’s a doco on youtube called Babybox : S. Korea’s Paradox of Low Birth Rate that’s well worth the watch (though brace yourself if you’re a crier, it’s rough).
That became a problem for one Midwest state. There wasn’t an age limit, so most of the kids being ditched were older and with significant mental or physical health issues.
State leaders had to amend the bill because they didn’t want to care for children, just use this as a way to justify banning abortions.