Reflections of a Handmaid’s Tale. Abortion punishable by death.

The Handmaid’s Tale

For anyone not aware of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 classic book or who hasn’t watched the series yet (DO IT – NOW!) the action is set in the religious military theocracy of Gilead, where radioactive pollution has rendered most of the female population infertile.

To propagate the species, the remaining fertile women are conscripted as Handmaids, slave birthing vessels for its ruling class. Instead of using artificial insemination, a religious taboo, these handmaids must endure sex with their assigned commanders while their wives sit behind them, legs spread, treating the human being in front as a mere receptacle, a functioning substitute vagina and womb.

The Handmaids are expected to be pious, despite being looked down upon as immoral for the sheer fact they have engaged in prior sex that saw a successful pregnancy and live birth. As such, “blessed be the fruit” and “may the Lord open” is how Handmaids greet each other, a way of encouraging each other to achieve a “keeper” viable baby, and not an “unbaby” or “shredder”, as the deformed or gravely ill are cruelly deemed.

The Republic of Gilead theocratic regime that takes over the United States of America.

In Gilead, the bodies of fertile women are politicised and controlled. The North American population is falling as more men and women become infertile (though in Gilead, legally, it is only women who can be the cause of infertility). Gilead’s treatment of women is based upon a literal, fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible, meaning that women are the property of and subordinate to their husband, father, or head of household. They are not allowed to do anything that would grant them any power independent of this system. They are not allowed to vote, hold a job, read, possess money, or own anything, among many other restrictions.

A particular quote from The Handmaid’s Tale sums this up:

The Republic of Gilead, said Aunt Lydia, knows no bounds. Gilead is within you.

This describes that there is no way around the societal bounds of women in this new state of government.

Trump’s United States

It is no surprise there have been comparisons aplenty between Atwood’s Gilead and Trump’s United States, where women’s reproductive rights have been actively eroded since his controversial election win. Just four days after Trump’s inauguration, he signed an executive order to prohibit abortion counselling by any non-government international organisation that receives federal funding and another allowing states to stop financing Planned Parenthood and other agencies that provide abortions. It should be noted only 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services involve abortions. The rest are vital processes, such as pap smears, mammogram referrals, treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV tests and more, to 2.5 million people each year.

Ohio House Passes Bill to Criminalise Abortions of Fetuses With a Heartbeat

The Ohio state legislature, specifically the House, last week decided to give the heartbeat bill—dictating abortions cannot be performed when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can be as early as six weeks—another pass. Now, anti-abortion Republicans are ramping up their attack on reproductive rights even further in a bid to start handing out death sentences.

H.B. 565 would ban abortion outright; not only that, it would change the status of an “unborn human” to a legally protected person under Ohio law, meaning those who seek out and receive abortions could be fully prosecuted, which in Ohio could potentially mean facing the death penalty.

There would be no exceptions, not for cases of rape, incest, or the health of the mother.

The bill was sponsored and introduced in March by Rep. Nino Vitale and Rep. Ron Hood. To give you a better sense of these fine gentlemen: In the past several months, Vitale has introduced legislation that includes a Stand Your Ground law, pushed for shutting down the border, and blamed the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on America’s problem with God, not guns. Meanwhile, Hood has pushed to expand concealed carry, supported lower corporate taxes and union-busting laws. He has also called abortion “the slaughter of children.”