Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey is requesting $2 million to scale a newborn nurse-visit initiative across the state. The proposal has sparked criticism from Anne Schlafly, who views the expansion as an overreach of government authority into private homes.
Scaling from 3,000 to 68,000 annual births
Governor Maura Healey is seeking $2 million in funding to expand the Welcome Family program, a taxpayer-funded initiative that provides nurses for home visits to families with newborns. According to the report , the program currently serves roughly 3,000 births each year, but the proposed expansion would make these visits available to approximately 68,000 births statewide annually.
The state of Massachusetts describes the Welcome Family program as a voluntary service. Nurses are tasked with assessing the health of caregivers and infants, answering care questions, and screening for postpartum mental health issues. Governor Maura Healey stated in an interview with Boston Public Radio that the goal is for every person in the state to have a home visit within days or weeks of having a baby to determine if they need additional resources.
Phyllis Schlafly's 1999 warning on 'government agents'
The expansion has reignited an ideological conflict rooted in a 1999 column by conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly. in that writing, Phyllis Schlafly questioned whether Americans should allow government agents into their homes to dictate how to care for children. Anne Schlafly, the current Chairman of the Eagle Forum, told Fox News Digital that her mother was "prescient" regarding the potential for government intrusion into family life.
Anne Schlafly argues that the home should be treated as a "castle" where government agents have no business "snooping around." While she noted that she does not object to families who choose to accept help, she maintains that any move toward making such visits compulsory would cross a fundamental line of privacy and autonomy.
The shadow of the Lindsay Clancy case in Duxbury
The push for expanded screenings comes amid heightened awareness of maternal mental illness, specifically highlighted by the 2023 case of Lindsay Clancy in Duxbury. Clancy admitted to killing her three young children—Cora, Dawson, and Callan—though her defense argued she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. The legal proceedings ended in a mistrial after a jury deadlocked.
State officials point to the efficacy of the Welcome Family program in identifying these risks. As reported by Fox News Digital,the program conducted 1,620 postpartum depression screenings in 2025, resulting in 208 positive screenings. The state of Massachusetts claims that every individual who screened positive received a referral for professional services.
What defines 'voluntary' consent and home safety criteria?
Despite the state's insistence that the program is voluntary, Anne Schlafly has raised questions about the validity of informed consent immediately following childbirth. She questioned whether a mother who has undergone labor and sedation can truly recognize what she is signing up for on a voluntary basis.
There are also gaps in the public documentation regarding the scope of these visits. While Massachusetts lists "ensuring that your home is safe" as a subject nurses may advise on, the program's family information page does not specify the particular home safety criteria used during these assessments. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether information colleccted during these visits is shared with other state agencies.
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