A new disturbing TikTok trend has mothers posting clips of themselves holding their crying babies with the caption “Me too, Lindsay” in support of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother on trial for allegedly strangling her three children to death.
Within this trend, videos of women rocking or holding babies and toddlers include excerpts from Clancy’s personal diary entries, which were read aloud in court. The diary entries detailed her severe postpartum mental health struggles before she killed her children—Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months. Other social media users assert that because Clancy is “a Leo” in astrology, “she must not have done it,” per the rules of astrology.
The movement has garnered nearly $2 million in donations in support of Clancy. A Wisconsin TikTok mom started a fundraiser that has raised more than $900,000 from nearly 30,000 donations. Clancy’s parents are also raising funds themselves and have received nearly $900,000 through their GoFundMe.
People across social media have joined online to support Clancy, and about 300 women and a few men protested on Aug. 20 outside the courthouse where Clancy is being prosecuted. The group’s pink shirts had messages such as “Believe,” “She Needed Help” and “Peace for Lindsay” inscribed on them.
Allie Beth Stuckey, a Christian commentator, weighed in on the “pro-Lindsay” movement and the high-profile case, expressing that one’s state of mind does not excuse murdering children.
“We can have grace for people’s struggles—postpartum and otherwise—without excusing or minimizing the methodical murder of children,” Stuckey posted on X. “Lindsay Clancy may have been suffering from psychosis—none of us really knows—but all people who commit heinous crimes are probably suffering from some level of insanity. I’m sorry that she may have been suffering and that she didn’t have the support she needed. But once we start negating accountability for evil because of mental health diagnoses, we forgo justice altogether. I’m not willing to do that.”
In January 2023, Clancy fatally strangled her children using an exercise band, then attempted to kill herself but survived. Now, she is facing the final stages of her prosecution for first degree murder. Clancy’s attorneys have claimed during the trial, which began in late July, that she was suffering from postpartum depression and psychosis, as well as undiagnosed bipolar disorder, and therefore should not be considered criminally responsible for killing her children. The trial has sparked debates on postpartum mental health, treatment of women dealing with psychiatric episodes and moral responsibility.
Stuckey believes that the viral public support for a mother on trial for murdering her children is a form of “toxic empathy” at play and is endangering others.
“Toxic Empathy is when you allow your deep feelings for one person to blind you to both reality and morality. So focused are you on the plight of one group or individual that you forget about those on the other side of the moral equation,” she posted on Instagram.
Stuckey used the example of abortion as just another form of toxic empathy.
“Toxic empathy feels so deeply for the pregnant woman in crisis that it ignores the rights and pain of the baby that’s murdered via abortion,” she said, adding, “It is so overwhelmed by Lindsay Clancy’s emotional pain that it completely obscures the physical torture of three innocent children. This kind of empathy—which plunges a person into irrationality—is not always suicidal, but it is always toxic. It makes fairness, objectivity, and justice very, very difficult.”
If convicted of first degree murder, she will face life without parole, but if she is deemed not guilty by reason of insanity, Clancy will be admitted to a state psychiatric hospital.
Relevant Scripture: Isaiah 5:20, Psalm 127:3-5, Psalm 34:18
