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IMPORTANT ISSUES! THESE ARE NOT SOLICITATIONS
IN THE WAKE OF THE LINDSEY CLANCY TRIAL, MASSACHUSSETTS GOV.
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How a proposal to offer nurse visits to new parents in Mass. spiraled online
Gov. Maura Healey speaks during a press conference about measures aimed at improving maternal mental healthcare screening and support at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (Screenshot via Katie Castellani/State House News Service)
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's politics newsletter, Mass. Politics. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
Welcome back to Mass. Politics, where we canvass social media so you don’t have to. In this edition: Maura Healey, Mike Minogue, Ted Cruz and more.
How did a nurse home visit program become the center of a social media firestorm?
When Gov. Maura Healey said there should be more talk about maternal health in the aftermath of the Lindsay Clancy trial, the conversation that followed on social media was probably not what she had in mind.
Let’s back up: At a Sept. 15 press conference inside Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, surrounded by doctors and public health officials, Healey publicized a $2 million proposal to massively expand the “Welcome Family” program, which offers families with newborns a free, one-time home visit by a nurse.
Currently, the program — first launched in 2013 — serves about 3,000 births a year. But Healey’s proposal would allow it to offer visits to every new parent in Massachusetts that wants one. (The state currently has about 68,000 births a year.)
“It's free, voluntary home visiting for families who've just welcomed a baby,” Healey said, adding that the nurses “can answer questions about feeding, sleep and caring for a new baby while monitoring a mom's postpartum health, screening for depression and other mental health concerns.”
A study published in 2023 found the program has benefits, including serving as a “key entry point into a continuum of care for families with infants and young children.” It’s not yet funded by the state, but rather has been supported via federal contracts with the Health Resources and Services Administration. In 2024, a bipartisan maternal health bill directed state officials to expand the program statewide.
Fast forward to this month: Healey’s proposal to actually allocate state money toward the expansion was folded into a spending bill she filed last week, after lawmakers passed on her initial proposal to include it in the full budget earlier this year.
Talk of the program took off after Healey appeared on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio” on Sept. 16 to highlight the effort to fund it. Healey discussed the program for about two and a half minutes, but one 15-second clip ripped through social media. Among some right-wing pundits and politicians, her description of the program – “You’re going to have a home visit” – was misconstrued as less than voluntary.
Radio show host Howie Carr said it takes “nanny state to the next level.” Libs of TikTok, an influential right-wing news aggregator with 4.7 million followers on X, posted, “Stay out of our homes you power hungry creep.” Fox News Politics followed suit, inaccurately proclaiming in a post to its 1.8 million followers on X that, “Healey wants to send government nurses into the homes of every family with a newborn.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz also weighed in, writing, “These lunatics think they own your children.” So did other national Republicans, like South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace and Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy.
Amy Carnevale, the MassGOP chair, said on Fox News it was an example of government overreach. “The Massachusetts Republican Party has been hearing from moms and dads across the state really objecting to this new policy,” she added.
Healey, a Democrat, referred to the conservative backlash as “typical Fox MAGA conspiracy nonsense” and reiterated that the program is voluntary, not mandatory.
“What I've heard in the conversations that I've had with so many moms is, you know, there was so much talk and preparation of the pregnancy, of delivery, during the course of pregnancy,” she told reporters at a press conference last week. “But there wasn't talk about what life is like for the mom, for the dad, for the household after birth.”
What does TRUMPER Mike Minogue, the Republican running against Healey in this fall’s general election, think about all this? In a statement to WBUR, he characterized Healey’s proposal as “extreme politics” and added the answer to women’s physical and emotional needs after they give birth “isn’t more bureaucracy and paperwork.”
“Maura Healey told us what she believes: that the state is responsible for the safety and well-being of children. That is at odds with the majority of us in Massachusetts who believe parents and families are responsible for the care of their children,” Minogue said.
When asked to more directly state his stance on the “Welcome Family” program, a Minogue spokesperson wrote, “He does not oppose the program.”
What’s your take on the firestorm — and the program itself? Drop me a line: gin@bu.edu.
WBUR
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