Switzerland’s third baby bin for parents unable to look after their offspring is set to be operating this summer in Olten, a town in the canton of Solothurn.

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It is to be installed at the centrally located cantonal hospital, which is readily accessible by public transport, officials announced on Monday.

It will be ready for use in June when renovations to the exterior of the hospital are completed, the cantonal government said.

With a glass window that can be pulled open, mothers with infants they cannot care for can place them in a cradle.

The facility was backed by the Swiss Aid for Mother and Child society (SAMC) and the Solothurn hospital system.

Baby bins are operating in Einsiedeln in the canton of Schwyz and one that opened last year in Davos, the mountain resort of Graubünden.

The Eisiedeln facility, within commuting distance of Zurich, has accommodated eight newborns since its was installed in 2011.

The babies were looked after for one to two weeks before being placed with adoptive families, according to a report from SAMC.

The newborns were aged from one day up to six weeks.

SAMC would like to see a total of eight baby bins operating across the regions of Switzerland.

Projects are under way to install one in the canton of Bern and in Valais, which would be the first such facility in French-speaking Switzerland.

The SAMC maintains the baby bins offer an alternative to abortions for young mothers who are unable for a variety of reasons to look after their newborns.

In a related development, a Swiss anti-abortion group on Tuesday launched an initiative that would amend the country’s constitution to ban abortions and assisted suicide.

The group maintains that abortions are harmful for the Swiss economy because they reduce the country’s Gross Domestic Product and consumer spending.  

“We fellow citizens must again create families, conceive and raise children,” the organizing committee for the initiative said in a release.

The committee is backed by the Federal Democratic Union (EDU) a small conservative party with Christian roots.