This recent article in Time Magazine discusses the Mother’s Act, legislation initiated in response to the story of Melanie Blocker-Stokes, who leaped to her death from her hotel room in Chicago three months after the birth of her daughter. Officially known as the Melanie Blocker-Stokes Post Partum Depression Research and Care Act, but referred to as the Mother’s Act, this legislation would require screening of all women post-partum for depression.

The problem with this is the attitude that being a mother is a risk factor for a psychiatric disorder.