As Judge Weighs Lindsay Clancy Retrial, Leading Psychiatrist Says the Verdict Won't Fix What Failed Her

Jeffrey A. Lieberman, M.D., former president of the American Psychiatric Association, says maternal mental illness is still an afterthought in U.S. policy, whatever the court decides.

NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A Massachusetts judge will decide on November 16 whether Lindsay Clancy, the mother who killed her three children while, her lawyers argued, in the grip of postpartum psychosis, will face a retrial after September's mistrial. Jeffrey A. Lieberman, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University and past president of the American Psychiatric Association, says the ruling will settle her case and nothing else.

"Whatever the judge decides, the system that failed Lindsay Clancy is the same one that failed Andrea Yates twenty-five years ago," said Dr. Lieberman. "This is not a failure of psychiatric medical science. We know how to recognize these conditions and to treat them. It is a failure of a healthcare system that too often waits for a crisis instead of preventing one." Yates drowned her five children in Texas in 2001. Diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, she was convicted in 2002, then found not guilty by reason of insanity on retrial in 2006.

The Yates and Clancy cases are the severe end of the spectrum, but maternal mental health conditions are not rare. Roughly one in five women experience a mental health condition during pregnancy or in the first year after birth. Mental health conditions, including suicide and overdose, are the leading cause of pregnancy-related death in the United States. Postpartum psychosis carries an estimated 4% risk of infanticide.

Despite those numbers, screening remains the exception. Roughly 80% of commercially insured pregnant women are screened for syphilis, which affects less than half of one percent of births. Fewer than 20% are screened for maternal mental health conditions, which affect one in five. The tools are free.

Dr. Lieberman points to three systemic failures:

Training. Obstetricians, pediatricians, midwives and nurses see new mothers most but get little mental health training. Meanwhile, 40% of psychiatry residencies require none in reproductive psychiatry.

Insurance. Reimbursement follows guidelines that are too narrow. ACOG recommends follow-up within three months of birth, and the DSM defines peripartum onset as ending four weeks after delivery. Many cases emerge months later, outside the window insurers will pay for.

Criminal justice. Illinois passed a law in 2018 recognizing perinatal mental health as a mitigating factor in criminal cases. It remains the only state to do so. "When the state prosecutes women who commit harm to their children as murderers, the legal codification of mental health stigma creates a significant barrier for women seeking treatment," Dr. Lieberman said.

Before 2018, only two states had maternal mental health screening laws. In 2025, thirteen states enacted them. He calls that a start, not a solution.

"When physicians aren't trained, aren't paid, and simply aren't available, it is no wonder that 75% of women affected by maternal mental illness go untreated," he said. "We must lead with policy. If we, as a nation, wish to avoid more tragic tales of infanticide, we must act, and we must act now."

About Jeffrey A. Lieberman, M.D.

Jeffrey A. Lieberman, M.D., is Professor and Constance and Stephen Lieber Chair in Psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons. He is a past president of the American Psychiatric Association and the author of Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry and Malady of the Mind: Schizophrenia and the Path to Prevention.

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SOURCE Jeffrey A. Lieberman, M.D.