Texas – Sen. Ted Cruz calls Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s newborn home-visit plan “lunacy” after governor says every family with a baby will have a healthcare provider visit their home to “make an assessment”
“These lunatics think they own your children,” Sen. Ted Cruz said Sept. 20 in response to a video circulating online of Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey discussing plans to expand postpartum home visits for families with newborns.
Cruz was responding to a post that shared a clip of Healey saying that families across Massachusetts would receive a home visit after having a baby. The clip, originally highlighted by radio host Howie Carr, showed Healey describing the visit as an opportunity for a healthcare provider to assess the family and determine whether additional support or resources were needed.
“Everybody in the state, when you have a baby, you’re going to have a home visit,” Healey said in the clip. “You’re gonna have a home visit within days, weeks and that will be an opportunity for a health care provider to make an assessment.”
The comments drew criticism from Cruz and other conservatives online, who questioned the role of government healthcare workers visiting families in their homes after the birth of a child.
The proposal, however, is part of a broader postpartum healthcare initiative Healey announced Sept. 15 following the conclusion of the trial of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy, whose case drew national attention to postpartum mental health. The jury in Clancy’s case was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, resulting in a mistrial, per reports.
Healey’s administration has proposed $2 million to expand the state’s Welcome Family program statewide. According to the governor’s office, the program provides voluntary, free home visits from maternal and child health nurses following the birth of a child. The state says the program is intended to help parents with newborn care, connect families with healthcare and social services and identify postpartum mental health concerns.
The proposed expansion would make the program available to families across Massachusetts regardless of age, income or other eligibility requirements. The governor’s office said the additional funding would give every parent and caregiver in the postpartum period an opportunity to receive a home visit, building on a program that currently serves about 3,000 births annually. Massachusetts has approximately 68,000 births each year.
The state has emphasized that the visits are voluntary, an important distinction from the way Healey’s remarks were characterized in some of the criticism circulating online.
Massachusetts officials say the home visits are designed to provide support rather than conduct an enforcement or child-welfare investigation. The Department of Public Health describes Welcome Family as a one-time nurse home visit available to mothers with newborns in participating communities, with the goal of connecting families to care and identifying additional needs.
According to Healey’s office, nurses participating in the program can assist with breastfeeding and newborn care, screen for mental health concerns and substance use, connect families with healthcare and social services and provide referrals for issues such as domestic violence and food access. Nurses also follow up with caregivers by phone two to three weeks after the visit.
The governor is also seeking another $250,000 to strengthen the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms, which provides consultation and support to healthcare providers treating pregnant and postpartum patients. Healey’s administration also plans to update state regulations concerning screening for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.
The initiative comes as Massachusetts officials have pointed to postpartum mental health as a significant healthcare issue. The Associated Press reported that mental illness, including substance use disorders, was the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths in Massachusetts between 2019 and 2024, with most of those deaths considered preventable.
Healey has framed the expansion as an effort to reach mothers and families earlier and make it easier for them to receive support. Her administration said the program is intended to help providers identify concerns sooner and connect families with resources before problems become more serious.
The controversy surrounding Healey’s remarks largely centers on the wording that “everybody in the state” would receive a home visit and that the visit would allow a healthcare provider to “make an assessment.” Critics, including Cruz, have focused on the government’s involvement inside private homes, while the Healey administration has described the initiative as an expansion of a voluntary postpartum support program, AP News reported.
The Massachusetts plan also comes at a politically sensitive moment following the Clancy mistrial, which intensified debate over how the state handles postpartum depression, anxiety and psychosis and whether families have sufficient access to mental healthcare after childbirth.
Cruz has not endorsed Healey’s characterization of the program as a healthcare-support initiative and instead used his Sept. 20 post to criticize the broader concept of government involvement with families and children.
The dispute has since spread beyond Massachusetts as the video of Healey’s comments circulated nationally, with conservative commentators highlighting the “home visit” language while state officials and health organizations have pointed to the voluntary nature of Welcome Family and its stated purpose of providing postpartum healthcare and resources.
