Is fiction our fate?

“I’d like to pass by the church,” (30)

My mom and I have very random conversations. They are so sporadic and unpredictable, but so are ideas, so are the feelings we have and the drive we accumulate to understand the truth, to make our own truths. This is why I never know when a late-night TV show will turn into a discussion about religion, a quick trip to refill my water will flow into a question regarding climate change, or a “hello, how was your day” into gun law. These conversations are always insightful no matter how unexpected they are, our most recent being a very current and timely topic in regards to American politics and our current class reading, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. In this instance we were having a family breakfast, and while cleaning the dishes a conversation regarding abortion rights was somehow brought up between my mother and me. This wasn’t a back-and-forth, just an exchange of ideas, both ours and others. We discussed the current turmoil around the topic, the many drastically different ideas and some of the effects of this range of opinions.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, abortion is also a subject with opinions, but not a subject with a range of opinions. In The Handmaid’s Tale you are not just prosecuted for being involved with an abortion, you are executed. During our conversations, I couldn’t help but think of this scene in chapter six where multiple doctors are hung and left on display for having assisted in abortions in the past, it’s written “Beside the main gateway there are six more bodies hanging, by the necks, their hands tied in front of them, their heads in white bags tipped sideways onto their shoulders” (32) and “The men wear white coats, like those worn by doctors or scientists.” (32) In our conversations a large part of our time was spent on the current laws that some states have in place where doctors are at risk if they give abortions, they can have the full force of the law brought down on them, less so than the doctors in the Republic of Gilead but not far off. Although current law in the United States does not include the death penalty for abortions some politicians are leaning that way, leaning toward Gilead.

Our conversation continued onto topics such as the information around abortions and whose opinions were really influencing, the media, and the public’s opinion on this topic. In Gilead, much like in America, many portray abortions as a shameful procedure, one that should be illegal and thought of as immoral and counterintuitive to the goals they have. In The Handmaid’s Tale people who have performed abortions are labeled evil, they are thought to be and portrayed as “war criminals” (33) and put on display to warn others of their “mistakes”, they make it obvious to the public their “wrongdoings” by having “a placard around his neck to show why he has been executed: a drawing of a human fetus.” (32) I and my mom brought up this idea of labels and how it’s very hard in a country with so many opinions to label things clearly and yet people do, they label abortions as “evil”, “illegal”, and “sinful” and the people who perform them as “murderers” just as they do in The Handmaid’s Tale.

My mother was very adamant about the fact that abortions are a right many people would like to take away and that’s only the beginning. Many want to defund women’s healthcare as a whole, taking away things such as birth control. This idea forces a comparison with that of Gilead, a society that has taken away the rights of women in order to “protect” them and themselves. In our conversation my mother had talked about her fears about the future and as a person who has read The Handmaid’s Tale throughout her entire life how she has seen America and its abortion laws and related women’s healthcare getting scarily reflective of some of the aspects of the dystopian novel.

In some states, women have died because they have no access to an abortion. My mother told me about a specific case that had only just recently happened where a woman had a miscarriage and was unable to get the proper procedure to save her because of some American abortions laws that prevented her from doing so and because of that she died. In the book it is mentioned “No woman in her right mind, these days, would seek to prevent a birth…” (33) But in many cases, women do not have a choice, it is either do or don’t, die or be persecuted.

Our morning, post-breakfast conversation was important for both of us. It gave me a look into my moms opinion and the opinions of many who hold similar values and it gave her the current generation’s opinion. But it also made me realize that no matter how dystopian The Handmaid’s Tale seems, there are some scary similarities and possibilities in America that reflect the values of the Republic of Gilead. This fiction is becoming reality and I see it in my life and in my county and we need to take our next steps very carefully in order to avoid this dystopian situation.