Twenty-seven years before Massachusetts proposed to dramatically expand a taxpayer-funded program sending nurses into the homes of families with newborns, legendary conservative firebrand and grassroots women’s leader Phyllis Schlafly posed a question that her daughter says now sounds remarkably familiar. "Are the American people willing to allow government agents to come into their homes to ‘advise’ them how to care for their babies?" Schlafly wrote in a March 1999 column titled, "Watch out for ‘Big Sister’ as Well as ‘Big Brother.’" The warning resurfaced as Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey seeks $2 million to expand the state’s Welcome Family program, which offers nurse visits following childbirth.
The program serves approximately 3,000 births annually, and the expansion is intended to make visits available following roughly 68,000 births statewide per year. BLUE STATE GOV IGNITES ONLINE FIRESTORM WITH PLAN TO SEND GOV'T INTO HOMES OF NEWBORN BABIES: 'LUNATIC LIBS' The push comes in the aftermath of the Lindsay Clancy case, which put a searing spotlight on maternal mental illness. Clancy does not dispute that she killed her three young children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — inside their Duxbury home in 2023.
Clancy's defense argued she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and was not criminally responsible, while prosecutors argued she knew her actions were wrong. The jury deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial. For Anne Schlafly, chairman of Eagle Forum and Phyllis Schlafly’s daughter, her mother’s warning has now taken on new resonance.
"My mother was very prescient about the things that could happen if we let government intrude into our family lives," Schlafly told Fox News Digital. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TARGETS HEAD START BUREAUCRACY IN MOVE ADVOCATES SAY PUTS PARENTS IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT "Her point was a government agent or an agent of the government has no business in your home, in your castle, snooping around and determining whether or not you’re raising the children the way the government wants you to raise the children," she said. "After all, the home is our castle." Phyllis Schlafly’s 1999 column focused on Healthy Families America and similar home-visiting initiatives, warning about programs that screened families for risk factors, connected parents with health and social services and offered parenting guidance inside the home.
She also questioned whether programs officially described as "voluntary" would always operate that way in practice. Massachusetts today describes Welcome Family as voluntary. Nurses assess the health of the "parents and caregivers" and newborn, answer questions about newborn care, screen for postpartum mental health concerns and connect families with additional services.
MICHIGAN LAWMAKER MOVES TO SHUT DOWN 'GUARDRAIL-FREE' CASH HANDOUT PROGRAM FOR NEW MOTHERS Notably, Massachusetts lists "ensuring that your home is safe" among the subjects Welcome Family nurses may advise parents about, though the program’s family information page does not specify particular home safety criteria. The state has called Welcome Family an "entry point into the system of care" for families with newborns. Healthy Families America, the program at the center of Schlafly’s 1999 column, is also among the models Massachusetts lists within its broader Home Visiting Initiative, though it is separate from Welcome Family.
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