{"id":332329,"date":"2025-06-08T13:29:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T18:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=332329"},"modified":"2025-06-06T18:25:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T23:25:23","slug":"handmaids-tale-abortion-supporters-ignore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/handmaids-tale-abortion-supporters-ignore\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ that abortion supporters want to ignore"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Though “The Handmaid’s Tale” \u2014 a book by Margaret Atwood made into a Hulu Original series \u2014 is popular among those who feel it is a vision of society without legalized abortion, it is actually the practice of surrogacy<\/em> that bears more similarities to the horrors of the fictional, dystopian “Gilead.”<\/p>\n

KEY TAKEAWAYS:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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  • Surrogacy, rather than pro-life laws, seems to more accurately resemble the mindset of the fictional Gilead in “The Handmaid’s Tale.”<\/li>\n
  • Live Action’s recent comedy video notes how abortion supporters seem to purposely ignore the similarities.<\/li>\n
  • Surrogacy comes with risks for the surrogate and the baby. In addition, the process intentionally inflicts trauma and dehumanizes and commodifies both surrogates and babies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    THE CONTEXT:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Both Atwood’s book and the series have been used to describe the current political landscape in the United States by abortion advocates, solely because preborn children are protected from abortion in some states. In the fictional “Gilead,” fertile women are forced to become handmaids, or sex slaves, for the purpose of bearing children for wealthy power couples.<\/p>\n

    And yet, it seems that pro-abortion advocates either don’t notice the striking similarities to surrogacy \u2014 or they pretend<\/em> not to notice.<\/p>\n

    In Live Action’s recent comedy video, the apparently deliberate blindness to this point is brought to light as a mostly female group of writers (presented as those behind the plot of “The Handmaid’s Tale”) discuss what they think the male patriarchy wants. In the end, one of the women interjects, “I’m concerned this story could offend our friends who use surrogacy. I mean, the only surrogates I know of are low-income women hired by wealthy people or gay couples to carry their babies.”<\/p>\n

    The main writer replies, “Liz, please don’t be ridiculous here. Rich and gay people hiring low-income women to be incubators for their IVF designer babies, the way nature intended, is beautiful. And it is not what we’re criticizing here. Careful.”<\/p>\n