Safe Haven Law billboards

Published March 27, 2020

The Knights of Columbus are continuing to support a campaign to promote the Safe Haven Law and Baby Boxes across Arkansas with new billboards in Blytheville and Mena, said Rose Mimms, executive director of Arkansas Right to Life. The Blytheville and Mena billboards will run for four weeks starting in April. The Blytheville billboard, located at Interstate 55 south of Highway 18, has average weekly impressions of more than 58,000. The Mena billboard, located at U.S. Highway 71 north of Dickson Road, has weekly average impressions of nearly 30,000.

Mimms said monetary donations by Knights of Columbus members in Mena and Blytheville are making the purchase of billboard space in those locations possible.

Since the first Safe Haven Law billboard campaign began in Harrison in June 2019, billboards have been placed in 13 Arkansas counties. In addition to the newest billboards in Blytheville and Mena, two billboards continue to run throughout the year in Searcy County on Highway 64 north and in Faulkner County on Highway 367/64 east, Mimms said.

The Safe Haven Law, enacted in Arkansas in 2001, is designed to protect babies from being hurt or killed from abandonment by parents who are unwilling or unable to provide parenting. Under the law, a parent may give up an infant anonymously at a hospital emergency room or law enforcement agency, and in 2019 the law was amended to include manned fire stations as a surrender location.