Feminists Scrap About Mother Who Killed Children

The National Organization for Women (NOW) clearly is confused about how to respond to the case of Houston mother Andrea Pia Yates, who this fall may stand trial for drowning her five young children in the family bathtub. Apparently convinced that this terrible crime resulted from a mental illness — postpartum depression — NOW momentarily came to Yates’ defense. Then, perhaps because of new information brought to the organization’s attention, the feminist group decided to take another look at the postpartum defense, acknowledging that the killings to which Yates confessed may have been the result of something more obvious.

NOW President Kim Gandy has taken another tack, which she announced about the time she learned NOW headquarters in Washington was to be picketed by irate members of the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) who protested that NOW seemed to be seeking excuses for murder. The Washington Times quoted a spokeswoman for the Independent Women’s Action Project, which ran the demonstration for IWF, as saying of the early NOW position on the Yates case: “It’s wrong to kill your children and use your hormones as an excuse.”

Gandy told reporters: “We think the death penalty is inappropriate involving a person who is mentally ill. As soon as I heard she was on [the psychotropic drug] Haldol, I thought, ‘This was a serious psychosis.’ This should have sent up a whole bunch of red flags to a whole lot of people. Why was this woman out of the hospital when she wasn’t fully treated?”

Considering that Yates was being “treated” with a rich cocktail of mind-altering drugs, critics are concerned that the treatment might have been the problem. For instance, in “Did Drugs Distort Mother’s Nature,” Aug. 13, Insight was the first to report that Yates had been prescribed not one but four mind-altering drugs — Haldol, Effexor, Wellbutrin and Remeron — all potentially dangerous and some at levels twice the recommended dosage.

While the Yates case has sparked little discussion about the adverse effects of such a psychopharmacological cocktail, NOW apparently has at least walked through the door opened by Insight. The Independent Women’s Action Project might do well, say Washington observers, to listen to what NOW is saying and consider whether this mother who killed her children while on exotic drugs prescribed by her psychiatrist is not also a victim — this time of politically correct medicine that tends more and more to dope symptoms rather than cope with troubled or unhappy people.

Before NOW learned about the mind-altering drugs taken by Yates, Gandy said her organization was “asking the questions that need to be asked,” such as, “Was it because her health insurance did not provide coverage adequate to her needs?” and “Did her health-care providers sufficiently inform her and/or her family about her condition and the attendant risks?”

Now that the feminist organization is aware of the number of mind-altering drugs used by the admitted killer, it seems possible that NOW may want to ask additional questions about Yates’ mental health, such as what are the known adverse side effects of these individual drugs, let alone a twice-daily cocktail of them?

One reason she was on meds but not hospitalized could be because the PC liberal crowd closed most of the state-operated mental hospitals about 10 years ago.

Correct analysis. Wrong chronology and incomplete statement of who is responsible.

During the 70's it became fashionable in liberal circles to denounce (often correctly) the state-run mental hospitals as hellholes. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and other movies questioned who was sane, those inside or those outside the institutions. Liberals reacted by encouraging the development of "community mental health" initiatives. Unfortunately, fiscally conscoius conservatives were eager to go along with shutting down the expensive mental hospitals. Nobody ever really got around to setting up the "community mental health" replacements, (that wasn't a crusade, it was too much like work) so those who should have been in the institutions just fell thru the cracks and have been splattering all over the sidewalks in out cities ever since.

Nobody ever really defended the institutions when they were defunded. Conservatives should be big enough to admit they share the blame for this one.

Actually the movement began in 1967 and was always actively pushed by liberals (the conservatives, as you point out, remained quiet on this one.) The community mental health system began as a small enclave of liberal bureaucrats in most communities and waited and waited until, one by one, the states could be brought in line by announcing a "break-through" in mental health care: community mental health whereby the dollars spent for the cumbersome hospitals would be transferred to the community and help oh so many more people. During this wait, the policy of least restrictive environment (can't lock up someone who is not floridly psychotic) and the right to refuse medications made the once-effective hospitals mere shams of therapeutic intervention. The problem (which now has become a monumental nightmare) of non-compliance by non-hospitalized patients was never addressed. The money from the hospitals was never fully transferred. Now the hospitals are closed or closing and the community mental health is a short-schrifted budgetary disaster that cannot do the job.

"..picketed by irate members of the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) who protested that NOW seemed to be seeking excuses for murder." " “It’s wrong to kill your children and use your hormones as an excuse.”

This is one of the most ignorant comments I've heard - from a woman - no less -about another woman. My comments are directed to you Ms. IWF: You make Yates psychosis look like a little PMS and this is an injustice to anyone coping with mental illness. Deep depression is like descending into hell. The mind you once knew you had turns on you, as does your body. Depression causes extreme weight loss, a constant state of fear and anxiety - free-floating anxiety - which is worse than the anxiety you feel over a particular situation, person or place - you don't *know* why you're trembling with fear and feeling like your head is about to explode. You walk into a room sit down and wonder how you got there because you think you're still in the other place you just came from. You're not sure what it's going to be like when you lose your mind entirely, you wonder where it's going to go and will you know it if it does come back. The meds try to reconnect the wires that blew in your brain circuitry which makes you feel like there's no walls in your brain between thoughts, imagery and feelings. Your skin crawls as you sit and watch the wall and wonder why you care at all - when bed to chair and chair to bed is all the life left in you. You haven't had a shower for weeks, your hair looks like two rats had a fight in it, and the clothes you've worn for weeks could stand on their own. You wear a death mask, your family & friends don't know what to say to you since you don't respond to questions very well when you're in a trance. And this is only the tip of the depressed iceberg. Sound like a squirt of hormone to you, Ms. IWF?

As far as meds go, it's not unusual to be on several meds at a time in treating depression - everyone's body chemistry is as different as snowflakes. It takes time to find the right meds and the right dosage. It can take up to a month before some meds kick in, and you're on your own for awhile trying to keep your mind from falling out on the floor to scatter like marbles. Antiparkinson's meds which have their own serious side effects may be prescribed along with antipsychotic drugs.
"Considering that Yates was being “treated” with a rich cocktail of mind-altering drugs.."

What a snotty comment. She wasn't taking LSD, peyote, or jimson weed.

"critics are concerned that the treatment might have been the problem."

Precisely. I don't recall hearing she was in psychotherapy 3-4 times a week.
"..Insight was the first to report that Yates had been prescribed not one but four mind-altering drugs." See above.

"..consider whether this mother who killed her children while on exotic drugs"
I don't think these drugs are "exotic".

“Was it because her health insurance did not provide coverage adequate to her needs?” and “Did her health-care providers sufficiently inform her and/or her family about her condition and the attendant risks?”
This may be the crux of the matter. I believe people with mental illness (and it could be *you* next) deserve more than drive-by psychiatric treatment.

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