The Nanny State: Babies and the Fourth Amendment in Massachusetts

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is riding the political coattails of Lindsay Clancy, potentially setting women's healthcare back decades. The Democratic governor announced a $2 million taxpayer-funded expansion to increase access to mental healthcare for new moms in her state. The way she frames the program seems benign enough.

"We’re working to expand postpartum care, identify concerns earlier and connect families to the mental health support they need, because taking care of moms means taking care of the whole family," Healey said in a press release. As someone who has written a mountain of press releases for political figures, I assure you those words have been workshopped and finessed. The truth, though, always comes out in the words that are spoken in a place of trust. 

During an interview with Boston Public Radio, Healey said the quiet part out loud:

Everybody in the state, when you have a baby, you're going to have a home visit within days, weeks and that will be an opportunity for a healthcare provider to make an assessment to see if you need some additional support and resources.

That doesn't sound very voluntary, does it? If it's an opt-in program (which it claims to be), then the reasoning would have nothing to do with Clancy and everything to do with the waiting list of new moms begging for help. But the Clancy trial opened the door for Healey, and she was too happy to maximize the opportunity.

Lindsay Clancy was charged with three counts of first-degree murder after she strangled each of her three children with exercise bands. She claimed not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. In other words, she blamed postpartum psychosis. She never denied doing it, so the jury was to consider her mental state at the time and whether she was liable for her actions.

Related: Lindsay Clancy Holdout Juror: ‘I Didn't Have Any Doubts’

Ben Ferguson summed up the strategic timing perfectly during his segment on Fox News' The Faulkner Focus. 

The Karens for Clancy are screeching for more access to postpartum healthcare and, since they're already mobilized to defend a murderess, Healey throws a bucket of chum in the waters knowing they will eat it up. 

Let's be honest with each other: if anyone is coming to my house, wanting to come inside, and saying they have a right to be there because they're checking on the welfare of my baby, they'd better have a warrant. The Fourth Amendment protects We the People from unreasonable search and/or seizure. We know our rights. We know the government has no legal ground to stand on when it comes to entering a private residence to "look around."

What about the sleep-deprived and anxious first-time mom who is too busy learning how to change a diaper to understand her right to privacy? She might tell herself she is fine, her child is fine, and this person just wants to help — and then that government representative finds something that concerns them personally?

Related: Not All Nurses Are Saints

Here's the problem with having an individual in your home on behalf of the government: they are exponentially more powerful than you will ever be. Did David invite Goliath into his home for the fight? No, they went out in the open for their showdown. Why? Witnesses. Room to move. Access to resources. Minimal damage to property. 

Think about your home from a visitor's perspective. For me, the first thing someone is going to see is my office, where I surround myself with three things that inspire and soothe me: sacred art, books, and furniture handmade by my grandfather. This is where I would ask someone I didn't know to sit for a conversation, and not just because I have weapons within my reach, but because it is not in the depths of my home.

But, in this case, they're coming to check on my child, so they'd expect, want, and need access to the rest of the house. As I said on The Front Porch, invitations matter. If I'd just had a baby and someone knocked on my door with the whole I'm from the government, and I'm here to help pitch, they'd be invited to leave. While we all agree that this would be an incredible government overreach, let me shed some light on the setback of the maternal healthcare issue.

One of the hallmarks of postpartum depression (PPD) is anxiety. My baby isn't sleeping. Is my baby getting enough to eat? Is my baby growing at the right rate? Am I a bad mother? These are all very normal concerns for parents, but moms with PPD take it a step further with intrusive thoughts like holding the baby and falling down the stairs, leaving the house in the car and getting into a catastrophic accident, neighbors calling authorities because your baby 'won't stop crying.'

I would know because I suffered from PPD after my first child, Hank, was born. My midwife and my sister regularly checked in on me via video chat, text, phone call, and scheduled appointments. I knew the right answers on the screening form, so I circled those rather than admit the truth. 

If I was that afraid under the care of someone I trusted, imagine the fear of having a stranger walk into my house, hear my baby crying, and see personal belongings that told them I was not "one of them": an entire shelf of books dedicated to Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, a crucifix, a coffee table book of Colt revolvers, the television turned to Fox News or Newsmax. 

Recommended: When Activism Turns Into Outrage, and CPS Becomes the Tool

And before anyone accuses me of being paranoid, let us be reminded of all of the times conservatives have been targeted for simply wanting a limited, transparent, accountable government:

• Holdout Juror in Clancy Trial is MAGA Republican — who now needs a safe house and lawyer
• Amy Coney Barrett Victim of Swatting — basically attempted murder
• Award-Winning Teacher Reprimanded for XX ≠ XY T-Shirt
• Child Berated by WNBA Co-Owner for Supporting Women
• Pro-2A Hero Stops Mall Murder, Reprimanded by Judge
• Trans Activist Group Targets J.K. Rowling (Again)

Combine all of this with the loudspeaker announcement that our children don't actually belong to us, and we've got a very real problem on our hands. From my colleague Catherine Salgado:

President Joe Biden asserted in 2023, “There is no such thing as someone else’s child. Our nation’s children are all our children.” Then-White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre subsequently claimed while talking about mutilating transgender “treatments”, “These are kids. These are our kids. They belong to all of us.” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife Jennifer just declared, “If your platform reaches our children, you have the responsibility to protect our children.” And Islamist Democrat Abdul El-Sayed posted last month, “All our kids are all our kids.”

Now mothers who were already emotionally thin, graduates of sub-par civics classes, and will do just about anything to avoid a confrontation will be guilted into letting Goliath into their homes. If the beast demands custody of the child, parents are in a near-impossible position to get their kid (or kids) back: they have to prove a negative. The parent has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the child is safe at home. And safe according to whose standards?

Healey's actions in the name of "healthcare" will undoubtedly sow seeds of distrust among some new mothers; they will not want someone entering their home should they have visible opinions. This program will also step on the toes of healthcare providers who already see mothers within three weeks of their child's birth, and we already know how convoluted the medical communication channels are. Women who are wholly mentally sound can be subject to false accusations. In no way is "you will get a knock on the door" a translation for "you will receive legitimate healthcare and resources."

We as a culture have worked so hard for so long to tell people it's okay to ask for help. Pregnancy changes a woman's brain chemistry, actually alters both the shape and hormonal makeup of the woman's central processing unit. If you don't believe me, research the science. From Early Childhood Matters, a publication of the Dutch grant-making and knowledge-sharing nonprofit Van Leer Foundation that is dedicated to the first 1,000 days of human life: 

We found that the changes in a woman’s brain during the matrescence period are very profound – more than I have ever seen before. For comparison, if you train machine learning algorithms to look at a structural brain image and say if this person has schizophrenia or not, they can be accurate approximately 60% of the time. But when looking at two brain images of a woman, we can tell with 100% accuracy whether or not she has gone through pregnancy between those images being taken.

There is no doubt that PPD is real. There is zero doubt that a mother is to blame for her feelings. After my sister finally convinced me that I needed to talk to my midwife — after my midwife finally convinced me that no one was going to take Hank away from me — after my husband promised to fight tooth and nail against anyone who came to our door to take one of us away, only then did I agree to be honest. Only then did I get the help I needed, and this was back in 2018, before all of this *gestures vaguely* lunacy took hold of the news cycle.

Being a new parent is hard enough, whether it's the first-born or tenth. Maura Healey just made things harder.

Are you a parent? How did you feel when you first brought your baby home? Would you have wanted a government representative to knock on your door and ask if you needed their opinion on the safety of your child? Tell me in the comments.

Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.

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