Margaret Atwood draws parallels between The Handmaid’s Tale and US after Roe v Wade overturned
A famous writer has warned that her grim work of fiction is fast becoming a reality after the US scrapped a law protecting women’s rights.
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One of the world’s most famous dystopian writers has warned that her fictional work is fast becoming a reality after the US scrapped a law protecting women’s ability to abort an unwanted pregnancy.
Margaret Atwood wrote her science fiction novel The Handmaid’s Tale in 1985, which follows the state of Gilead where women’s sole purpose in life is to reproduce with no say over their own bodies.
And many, including Atwood herself, can’t help but notice the similarities between her novel and the current state of the US.
Last month, leaked documents from Politico revealed that Justice Samuel Alito of the US Supreme Court was considering overturning Roe v Wade, a court case which in 1973 provided the constitutional right to women to abort pregnancies up until foetal viability.
This prompted Ms Atwood to pen a scathing opinion piece about the archaic idea in The Atlantic.
Less than a month later, on Saturday morning AEDT, the court voted 6-3 in favour of ending a woman’s legal right to terminate a pregnancy in her first two trimesters.
It is now up to each state to determine whether women can have legal abortions, however, 26 states are either “certain or likely” to ban abortions, according to a research group.
The decision could also pave the way for states to limit access to contraception, a legal expert who spoke to NBC warned.
“Although I eventually completed … The Handmaid’s Tale, I stopped writing it several times, because I considered it too far-fetched,” Ms Atwood wrote recently.
“Silly me.”
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“Theocratic dictatorships do not lie only in the distant past: There are a number of them on the planet today,” Ms Atwood continued in her opinion piece.
“What is to prevent the United States from becoming one of them?
“For instance: It is now the middle of 2022, and we have just been shown a leaked opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States that would overthrow settled law of 50 years on the grounds that abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution, and is not ‘deeply rooted’ in our ‘history and tradition’.”
Ms Atwood also said: “Women were non-persons in US law for a lot longer than they have been persons. If we start overthrowing settled law using Justice Samuel Alito’s justifications, why not repeal votes for women?”
She said it was exactly this outdated, 17th-century mindset that formed the basis for her fictional world.
“In the fictional theocracy of Gilead, women had very few rights, as in 17th-century New England …” she said.
“Based on the reproductive arrangements in Genesis — specifically, those of the family of Jacob — the wives of high-ranking patriarchs could have female slaves, or ‘handmaids’, and those wives could tell their husbands to have children by the handmaids and then claim the children as theirs.”
Later on in her piece she said: “The United States looks to be well on the way to establishing a state religion. Massachusetts had an official religion in the 17th century. In adherence to it, the Puritans hanged Quakers …
“If Justice Alito wants you to be governed by the laws of the 17th century, you should take a close look at that century. Is that when you want to live?”
In a further sign of the US spiralling into a science fiction-type world, the conservative state of Texas is encouraging denunciations relating to illegal abortions by paying informants to come forward – much like in Atwood’s novel and other dictatorships throughout history.
Although this law came into effect before the Roe v Wade decision was overturned, it speaks to the future of the US now that there are fewer protections in place for abortions.
In September last year, Texas introduced a controversial new abortion law known as SB 8 which bans abortions after just six weeks of pregnancy, according to NPR.
The law also encourages private citizens to become snitches for the government.
If these private citizens manage to sue someone who helps a woman get an abortion — including her abortion service provider and even someone who drove her to the clinic or who gave her money to afford the procedure — they are awarded with a minimum of US$10,000 from the government.
Anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life hasn’t hesitated to make the most of the new law, setting up “whistleblower” channels where anonymous tips can be submitted.
Welcome to THE HANDMAID’S TALE.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 25, 2022
Others also drew parallels, with American horror novelist Stephen King making a now viral tweet stating: “Welcome to THE HANDMAID’S TALE”.
An executive producer on the TV series of The Handmaid’s Tale, based on Ms Atwood’s book, has also spoken out in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision.
Warren Littlefield told Deadline right after the law was overturned: “We would love to be less relevant, but sadly, the show’s been hauntingly relevant. And today appears even more so.”
The iconic red and white uniform of handmaids from the hugely popular TV show has been widely adopted by pro-choice protesters since the series began in 2017 and has become a symbol of the struggle for reproductive rights.
“I think we all wish that we were this bizarre, dystopian, no-one-would-ever-believe-this concept,” Mr Littlefield added.
“We all wish that we were a made-up graphic novel.”
Originally published as Margaret Atwood draws parallels between The Handmaid’s Tale and US after Roe v Wade overturned