An Essential National Conversation
Joneen Mackenzie writes that the Lindsay Clancy trial has sparked a national conversation that should invite compassion, not judgment.
Joneen Mackenzie ·
I cannot listen to one more news report about Lindsay Clancy. This trial has sparked a painful national conversation about motherhood, mental health, women’s rights, and, perhaps most importantly, children’s rights and well-being. As jurors deliberate on Clancy’s criminal responsibility for the deaths of her three young children, the case has brought postpartum mental illness and the failures that can surround maternal health into sharp focus.
This is not a conversation that invites judgment of women who are struggling. It should invite compassion. Mothers are human beings. They can become exhausted, depressed, overwhelmed, frightened, lonely, or profoundly ill. Some carry burdens no one else sees. Some quietly wonder how they will make it through another day. And yet, even in the midst of their struggles, mothers overwhelmingly continue to do something extraordinary: they show up for their children.
They wake in the night to comfort a crying baby when they desperately need sleep themselves. They stretch the grocery budget to make sure their children eat. They sit beside a hospital bed, hold a feverish forehead, attend the parent-teacher conference, teach a child to tie a shoe, wipe away tears after the first heartbreak, and stand on the sidelines cheering when their child scores the winning goal.
A mother may be fighting her own battles while simultaneously becoming her child’s safe place. She may be worried about paying the mortgage, but she still remembers that tomorrow is “bring-your-favorite-book-to-school” day. She may be grieving a broken relationship, but still tucks her child into bed and whispers, “Everything is going to be okay.” She may feel inadequate, exhausted, or invisible, and still sacrifices her own comfort, time, money, sleep, and dreams for the little person who calls her, “Mom”.
I remember when my husband of 20 years left me. I was devastated, depressed, exhausted, scared, and felt worthless, embarrassed, and ashamed. I could hardly breathe, let alone care for four active children. At the expense of my own health, I pulled myself together to make my children my first priority. If I did not get the help I needed, I cried out until it came. I did not rely on antidepressants or mood-enhancing drugs. I knew what was right and wrong. I put my health and well-being in the back seat to my children’s health and well-being. Sharing this is not to elevate me, but rather to outline the innate characteristics of motherhood: protecting her children no matter what.
This is why protecting motherhood is not merely a women’s issue. It is a children’s issue, a community issue, and ultimately a national issue. We must hold two truths simultaneously: women deserve dignity, safety, opportunity, and compassionate mental health care, AND children possess an equally profound right to be protected, nurtured, loved, and given the opportunity to flourish.
The rights of women should never be framed as requiring us to overlook the rights of children. Nor should concern for children diminish our compassion for mothers. The answer is not choosing one over the other. The answer is strengthening the ecosystem that supports both.
Healthy mothers help build healthy families. Healthy families strengthen neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and communities. Strong families are the foundation of a healthy nation.
The tragedy surrounding Lindsay Clancy should therefore move us beyond arguments and toward action: earlier recognition of maternal mental health crises, stronger support systems, compassionate care, and a renewed cultural appreciation for the right to life and for the irreplaceable work mothers do every day.
Most mothers will never make headlines. They simply keep loving. They keep showing up.
They keep sacrificing. And in doing so, they quietly help hold our children and our nation together. Let’s have this essential national conversation.
joneen@narme.org
Print source: The Villager, Vol. 44 No. 41, Sept. 3, 2026, page 3. The print page mixes the column with adjacent ads; this draft follows the readable column text from the issue extract.