09/04/2026
Hot Take.
If Lindsay Clancy is found not criminally responsible, I worry about the precedent this could set.
And let me be very clear: postpartum psychosis is real. Women experiencing it deserve immediate, serious medical intervention. They deserve to be believed. They deserve treatment.
But there is a dangerous line between saying “this woman was profoundly mentally ill” and creating the public perception that postpartum mental illness can become a blanket excuse for killing your children.
That precedent could hurt women more than people realize.
Because the next woman desperately asking for psychiatric help could be looked at differently.
The next mother experiencing terrifying thoughts could be treated as a potential danger instead of a patient who needs help.
The next doctor could hesitate.
The next family could be terrified to report what they’re seeing because they’re afraid of what happens afterward.
And suddenly, something intended to bring compassion to women suffering from postpartum psychosis could become another reason society is afraid of them.
That is the part that bothers me.
We should be fighting for women to receive treatment before they reach a catastrophic break with reality—not establishing a narrative afterward that mental illness automatically erases accountability.
You can have compassion for a woman in psychiatric crisis.
You can believe postpartum psychosis is devastating.
You can demand better mental-health care for mothers.
And you can still say:
There has to be accountability when children are murdered.
Because if this becomes the precedent, I’m afraid the people who ultimately pay the price won’t just be the victims in this case.
It could be women themselves.