this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2026
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On Sunday, Fox News reported, “Calls to repeal women’s rights to vote are emerging from the online firestorm over the Lindsay Clancy trial, prompting Republican women to warn that the intraparty rhetoric could hurt the GOP.”

The fact that this article was published by Fox News was itself noteworthy. Press Baron Rupert Murdoch is one of the few remaining centers of power on the right who is strong enough to pick fights with Trump and his MAGA supporters. In recent years, Murdoch’s outlets have carved out a position for themselves as gatekeepers who work to protect the GOP brand from the most self-destructive impulses of MAGA. One recent example of this phenomenon is the decision to fire (or at least take off the air) the firebrand election denier Maria Bartiromo.

The Fox article was also significant for highlighting how the tragic case of Lindsay Clancy is being exploited by the hard right to justify misogyny. Clancy killed three of her children in 2023. Her legal defense was that she suffered from postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder. Eleven jurors voted to acquit Clancy based on this argument, but one juror resisted, leading to a mistrial.

Nine of the jurors who voted to acquit—presumably because they thought Clancy deserved pity rather than harsh punishment—were women; the lone holdout was a man. The hard right has seized on these facts to justify arguments that women are incapable of reason. The Fox article quoted a post on X that made a common argument: “The female jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial are speaking out about their deliberations and disagreements with the sole male holdout. The more they speak the better they make the case for repealing the 19th Amendment.”

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[–] Zak@lemmy.world 159 points 1 month ago (26 children)

A mentally ill woman kills her kids, so women shouldn't be able to vote?

What happens when a mentally ill man shoots a bunch of random people?

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 110 points 1 month ago

What happens when a mentally ill man shoots a bunch of random people?

Thoughts and prayers.

[–] Malica@lemmy.zip 77 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Tragic lone wolf, nothing can be done

Something something bad apple

[–] HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 38 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I mean just go to the Notable Familicides section and observe the extraordinary amount of men and few women perpetrators.

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I literally got banned from a very popular community for pointing this out once.

Apparently it's misandrist to acknowledge simple facts.

[–] HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The simple fact is that men disproportionately commit violent crimes, and it's heavily tied to patriarchy enabling it.

I mean just look at how many people on that list are of a society and/or religion that enforces strict patriarchal rule of society and family.

Men in these environments are taught from childhood that they're supposed to keep all members of their family under their thumb, and anything less makes them a fundamental failure of a man. So they abandon anything even remotely resembling empathy towards women and children to protect their own egos and status. Thus, violence becomes acceptable to enforce domination, in their minds.

You don't have this in nearly the same capacity with women in any society or religion. It wasn't even what happened in this case of murder.

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[–] sudo@lemmy.today 26 points 1 month ago

They give the officer a promotion.

[–] RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 month ago

Hey, stop making this political! /s

[–] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 month ago (6 children)

That's what bugs me, the double standards. If a female led superhero movie sucks, Hollywood is afraid to invest in female led superhero movies. If a male led superhero movie sucks, oh well, shit happens.

If a woman does something wrong, it's on all women. If a black person does something wrong, it's on all black people. If an immigrant does something wrong, it's on all immigrants. If a transgender person does a mass shooting or a transgender person's partner shoots someone, it's used against all transgender people. But if a white cis man rapes and murders, it isn't seen as a reflection of their demographic

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[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

Conservatism is about unequality. For them it's just "nature" to collectively punish all people belonging to a given group that are less powerful.

If you're part of a more powerful group, all your grievances with a group are automatically justified. If not, even if they were justified, you have to show the moral high ground by not acting out on them.

[–] FluidBeef@quokk.au 7 points 1 month ago

They give him a badge /satire

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[–] Blibly@lemmy.world 156 points 1 month ago (2 children)

"All the women are telling us we're wrong. We should probably take their voices away."

Typical fucking conservative logic. I hate these people

[–] aquovie@lemmy.cafe 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Also they missed the much more obvious conclusion: the lone holdout juror was a man with no evidence, no logic, and all emotion. Shouldn't we take away men's voting rights instead? /s

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[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 54 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Nine of the jurors who voted to acquit—presumably because they thought Clancy deserved pity

I don't think this is why they voted to acquit. It was cause she knew there was a problem and was reaching out and doing all the right things and nobody was helping her.

This was an entirely avoidable case in a country where we care about mental health.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca 13 points 1 month ago

I didn't know anything about this case besides its existence, but it looks like she had plenty of professional assistance, a number of prescriptions that were both taken and not, recommendations of hospitalization that were declined and later accepted, and on and on. I'm not saying the system didn't fail her, but she had a lot of help along the way. I would not call this a traditional case of someone falling through the cracks.

There are also indications that social stigma on her and her husband's part caused care to be declined at times. That's a separate issue that we need to address as a society.

[–] starelfsc2@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It is absolutely not lol I watched until the prosecution rested, it's because the Massachusetts law is that the prosecution has to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that she was sane at and during the incident, for a person who had been to a psychiatric hospital multiple times and was on trazadone, an ssri, and was hardly sleeping and wrote in her diary she was having hallucinations. Even if you think she was sane at the time that alone is enough for reasonable doubt.

She got mental health care and I would argue with one doctor pretty good care, but US mental health care just sucks. I would also say it's still her fault for not leaving when she started going downhill (and told her mom she had thoughts of hurting the kids), and because I think it was more of a murder-suicide than psychosis. It's your responsibility to leave at that point if you feel like you might be a danger to people around you.

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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 33 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

It really is the best to have to live in a society where people who say this shit aren't only tolerated, but provided with platforms (and sometimes straight cash from far right lunatics) to push it.

Especially when I'm old enough to remember when this was decidedly not the case. I remember what it was like, and I'm fucking furious that they took it away from us.

Our society has been poisoned.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Especially when I'm old enough to remember when this was decidedly not the case.

It was only a decade ago!!!

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[–] tacosanonymous@mander.xyz 27 points 1 month ago (5 children)

That seems like political suicide. Either no one votes for your insanely shitty platform or idiots do and then you have a revolution. Because we’re not going back, hard stop.

[–] kestrel7_7@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

People said the same thing about abortion, and yet here we are

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[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Gestures at the last twelve years

[–] Wren@lemmy.today 7 points 1 month ago

From everything they're doing it doesn't look like they ever want to have a fair vote.

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[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago (2 children)

They could just say they don't want women to vote because they tend to be more empathetic and compassionate and therefore vote against conservatives. Just tell the fucking truth for once.

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

I didn't think they trouble themselves with the truth very often.

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[–] rabber@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I said this was going to happen weeks ago and people here on lemmy were calling me stupid

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 month ago (48 children)

There’s some in the comments saying the same. That’s what I heard about Roe v Wade as well and look where we are.

The erosion of women’s rights has been happening and is continuing to happen. Don’t let anyone gaslight you about this.

[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not just women's rights but the rights of anyone that isn't a richwhiteman.

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[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The deep conspiracy theory is that this whole case is fabricated to create toxic man vs women discourse because racism isn't distracting enough right now.

This case is basically an exact copy of a case that apparently happened in Ireland 3 years ago that caused a lot or controversy.

https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/lindsay-clancy-diedre-morley-murder-trial-ireland-22421995.php

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[–] fyzzlefry@retrolemmy.com 11 points 1 month ago

Both can be true

[–] Beth@piefed.social 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Never mind the weekly family
annihilators who are not women and who never make the news. Same with any other issue about women. They don’t actually care unless they can exploit it to harm us while pretending otherwise.

[–] starelfsc2@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

bad thing: 😐

bad thing, woman: well clearly this says a lot about women as a whole and they get a pass for everything and...

[–] kreskin@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

They are throwing everything they can at the wall to see what sticks so they can destroy whats left of the US government and start their long wished for civil war. They want a monarchy, and they have the US militarys backing to get it.

[–] mechoman444@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (6 children)

The Lindsay Clancy case did generate some genuinely disturbing online rhetoric. There are, in fact, fringe conservative and MAGA-adjacent accounts calling for the repeal of the 19th Amendment, and there is even a petition explicitly connecting the Clancy case to a demand to repeal women's suffrage. That part is real.

But that is very different from saying “MAGA is exploiting the Lindsay Clancy case to try to end women’s right to vote.” There is no evidence that the MAGA movement, the Republican Party, Congress, or any serious political organization is pursuing repeal of the 19th Amendment because of this case. What exists is a fringe online reaction that has been amplified because it is outrageous.

The actual court case has nothing whatsoever to do with women's voting rights. It was a criminal trial concerning whether Lindsay Clancy was criminally responsible for killing her three children. The jury ultimately deadlocked 11–1 and the judge declared a mistrial.

And frankly, I think the lone holdout juror deserves some credit for doing exactly what a juror is supposed to do: make his own judgment rather than surrender his position simply because eleven other people disagreed with him. Whether his interpretation of the evidence and reasonable-doubt standard was correct is a legitimate question. But unanimity exists precisely because one juror is allowed to disagree. The defense even attempted to have the juror removed, and the judge declined to do so.

That's not “MAGA ending women's voting rights.” That's the jury system functioning as designed, even if the result is frustrating.

The Nation is taking a real but extremely fringe online phenomenon and presenting it in its headline as though it represents an organized political effort to abolish women's suffrage. That is sensationalism, and it is dangerously close to misinformation because the headline encourages readers to infer a political movement that the evidence does not establish.

There is certainly room to criticize people who genuinely advocate repealing the 19th Amendment. I would criticize that position myself. But we should not turn a handful of inflammatory social-media accounts into “MAGA is trying to end women's right to vote.”

And if this is a moderated community, this is exactly where better moderation matters. A provocative political claim can be discussed, but the title should accurately describe what the linked article actually establishes. “Fringe MAGA-adjacent activists are calling for repeal of the 19th Amendment following the Clancy mistrial” would be a defensible description. “MAGA is exploiting the case to end women's right to vote” is a much broader claim that the evidence simply does not support.

Disclaimer: Nothing in my comment should be interpreted as support for MAGA, the political right, conservatism, or any effort whatsoever to repeal the 19th Amendment or restrict women's rights. I oppose those positions. My objection here is specifically to sensationalized and misleading claims that take fringe rhetoric and present it as an established political movement. I support equal rights and the fundamental human rights afforded to people regardless of sex, race, religion, political affiliation, or any other personal characteristic. Fact-checking exaggerated claims is not an endorsement of the people or ideology being discussed. It is simply an insistence that political arguments be based on what the evidence actually demonstrates.

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Those supposed fringe online reactions are being platformed on Fox News. It’s being put into mainstream discourse.

I have seen a significantly larger amount of discourse against women’s rights with this case than just a few fringe extremist accounts.

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[–] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 month ago

I hate how people keep emphasizing “the one holdout was male!!!”. The other two men in the jury voted with the women. I get that there’s a lot of theories about how and why gender matters in this case, but the gender of the one holdout is really a meaningless piece of information. If gender had nothing to do with it, there would still be a 50/50 chance of the one holdout being a man.

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