On Thursday , the House of Representatives passed their version of the American Health Care Act , a flier to replace Obamacare with something that , among many other thing , cracks down on women ’s wellness and condom . There wasone phrasethatresonateda lotthat day : “ This sounds just like The Handmaid ’s Tale . ”
Should AHCA become constabulary , it willdefundPlanned Parenthood for one year unless it halt extend abortions , as well as make sexual assault , domestic violence , and pregnancy pre - existing conditions for State Department that set up mellow - risk insurance policy pools ( Note : the details about this are complicated , as many states already have protections for some of these conditions , you may find a detailed breakdown here ) . This is quite literally the government financially punishing intimate assault and DV victims , which aredisproportionately woman , and force women who become meaning ( possibly without access to miscarriage services ) to face hiked agio for the rest of their living .
This is just one of the many ways fair sex today feel like we ’re already living in a translation of The Handmaid ’s Tale . Sixty - one - yr - old Desiree Fairooz faces a yr in prison house after beingconvicted of a crimefor express joy at Attorney General Jeff Sessions during his substantiation hearing , yet convict sexual assailant Brock Turner got six calendar month … and onlyserved half of them . engage photos up women ’s skirt isperfectly legalin some body politic . Public schools in some State only teachabstinence until marriage , going so far as to promote teens to signvirginity pledges . This does n’t even begin to go into the laws and rules that punish theLGBTQ residential area . *
The Handmaid ’s Tale , a Good Book by Margaret Atwood that ’s currently one of Hulu ’s highest - snitch show , is about a dystopian high society in what used to be America , where women ’s right have been stripped out by a religious oligarchy . These admit not rent women bear jobs , have their own bank invoice , or insure their own bodies . It ’s an extreme model of something that ’s echoed in former and current policies in the United States . Let ’s not forget it ’s been less than a century since women could lawfully vote here .
Some of the most late government issue might seem suppositional — after all , AHCA still has to pass the Senate , and President Donald Trump ’s executive order of magnitude on religious freedom was so nonmeaningful the ACLUretracted its promise to litigate . However , there are already a crowd of American laws that target women and sexuality . Some of them are old and practically deserted , others have been turn over of late , and a few of them are vague interpretations of subsist jurisprudence to restrict women ’s rights . All of them share one thing in common : They ’re literal , they ’re shitty , and they ’re straight out of The Handmaid ’s Tale enchiridion .
1) Jail time for living together before marriage
In The Handmaid ’s Tale , couples were n’t legitimate unless they were married — Gilead ’s authorities go so far as to invalidate all 2d marriage as adultery . In the US , there are still two states where it ’s illegal to live with someone before you ’re splice . In both states , it ’s more than a slap on the radiocarpal joint … you may actually go to gaol . Under Mississippi law , if a humankind and char are proven to be live together and take “ customary sexual intercourse , ” they can be fined up to $ 500 each and sentenced to six calendar month in jail . In Michigan , a DoS that’strying to overturn the law , you could get up to a year .
The laws are seldom enforce , but it ’s one of those post where , since the law exists , they could be used to punish couples at anytime — Michigan ’s was reference in 2005 todeny a founding father trial rightfulness , since he was survive with another woman . Even if that were to never pass , having a constabulary that illegalize cohabitation ( especially same - sexual practice couples , since they could n’t get get hitched with until recently ) sends a really high-risk content — that their land consider their actions a “ criminal offence against public morals and decency . ”
2) Requiring fetuses get funerals (and other anti-abortion regulations)
The Margaret Court ruling for Roe v. Wade in 1973 ascertain that meg of American women had the right field to quest for safe and legal abortion . Some conservative group and lobbies have spent eld trying to double back this landmark decision . frankly , they are too many to count , including letting husbandssue to obturate abortions , or forcibly closing Planned Parenthoods because thehallways were too narrow . One of them comes out of Indiana , signed by none other than current Vice President Mike Pence .
Last year , Pence ( as governor)signed a law“with a prayer ” that demanded all aborted or miscarried foetus get buried or cremated — which has been criticized for doing nothing except mentally excruciate the fair sex dissemble . The law isnow sharedwith Texas and Louisiana , though they ’ve had fuss enact it thanks to grasp - ups in motor inn . Indiana is also the 2nd land in the commonwealth to ostracise miscarriage in cases where a foetal birth flaw was discover . Some states , like Arizona , even allow doctors dwell to a woman if a flaw is found to thin the risk of her wanting an abortion . ( Side preeminence : Under the new AHCA , if that nascence desert wasany of these condition , the baby would have a pre - existent condition , meaning they could face up a lifetime of high insurance premiums . )
But that ’s not enough , apparently . In January , Indiana representative Curt Nislyfiled an outright“Protection at Conception ” throwaway that would make all miscarriage illegal , depart criminal charges up to county prosecutors . This is n’t anything new — these bills often get filed to pacify chemical group or lobbyists . But , there ’s one big difference of opinion now … Roe v. Wade is in danger .
3) Roe v. Wade “trigger laws”
During his argumentation and limited time as chairperson , Trumphas promisedto appoint judge who would revolutionize Roe v. Wade , generate full control over miscarriage access to the states . Some states , like California and Hawaii , already have police force that protect a woman ’s right to an miscarriage . Others have the exact opponent . At least six states in the US have so - hollo “ trigger Pentateuch , ” which are laws on standby to make miscarriage illegal in the state as soon as Roe v. Wade is overturned ( technically they betoken the commonwealth ’s “ intention , ” but resister say they could be enacted quickly if not immediately ) .
These include states like Arkansas , Kansas , and Missouri . One of the most famed caseful right now is Illinois , whose law-makers has been trying to lapse a bill that would remove the state ’s own gun trigger law , as well as absent victuals that deny insurance reportage of miscarriage to women on Medicaid and state employee insurance . Illinois governor Bruce Rauner has pledged tovetothe bill .
4) Making vibrators and sex toys illegal
In a few nation , like Alabama and Georgia , it ’s still illegal to buy gender plaything . These bans in the main target vibrators and dildo , which are often used by woman for intimate input — almost one-half of woman use sex toys today , and a2009 surveyshowed that three out of four women have trouble culminate during sex without extra stimulation , like from a vibrator .
Alabama ’s Bachelor of Arts in Nursing targets all toys that are “ mainly for the stimulation of human venereal harmonium , ” so as to preserve public ethical motive . In Georgia , specifically , you ’re only allowed to purchase a sex toy dog if it ’s need medically or educationally , or for legislative or law enforcement use . Until 2008 , Texas had a similar forbidding — one that Senator Ted Cruzfought to protecton the grounds that sex activity was entirely for reproductive purposes ( much like The Ceremony in Handmaid ’s Tale ) . The natural law actually led to a 43 - year - previous mother getting check in 2003 after she sell a sexual urge toy to an undercover law policeman .
5) Denying permanent birth control based on age, number of kids
Some fair sex in Kentucky havereported that doctors turned them awayfor want to get their tubes tied , or tubal ligation , if they were untried than 25 eld old , unless they already had at least three kids . This is a response portion out across several DoS , like Illinois and Colorado , where women are routinely deny lasting giving birth control . Men typically are n’t deny as much , but in Catholic hospitals , both tubal ligation and vasectomy are usually defy on religious grounds .
Until the 1970s , women legally take their married man ’s permission to get tubal ligation , but that was dispute and revolutionise . now , doctors can not pass up patients based on federally protect curtilage , like subspecies , religion , or gender ( though trans patient role in some states risk rejection ) . Otherwise , the police is on their side , anddoctors are freeto refuse services for any number of personal reasons . The official excuse pass on for deny tubal ligation is that doctors do n’t need to be sued by women who by and by regret permanent birth ascendance , but most women who are refused the armed service say it ’s because the doctor insists they ’ll believably want children later … or should exit the choice open , even if they have no purpose of take kids .
6) Getting fired for sexually arousing their bosses
There is n’t a constabulary that specifically says a woman can get canned if she unintentionally conflagrate her boss ’s nether regions , but several jurist in Iowa used the jurisprudence tojustify one char ’s firinga few years ago . In 2010 , a dental help file a gender discrimination lawsuit against her former boss , who terminate her because he was attracted to her . He reportedly tell her he ’d get erections if her outfit was too telling , even though she mostly wore scrubs and a T - shirt . She also said she never reciprocated his procession .
Iowa is an “ at - will state , ” mean employees can be force out at any time for any reasonableness , so long as it ’s not based on a federally protected rationality , like race , religion , old age , or sex . Unfortunately , the male judge think sexuality was n’t an issue when it came to a case about sexual attractive feature , and dismissed it on the grounds that the boss was only taste to protect his marriage . Two age later , the all - male person Iowa Supreme Court do to the same end during Melissa Nelson ’s appeal , adding it was okay to provoke her “ simply because the boss views the employee as an resistless attractive force . ” The Handmaid ’s Tale boast all women being set off to protect themselves and humankind . Whether we wish it or not , this case set a legal case in point that a knob ’s sexual urge can lead to women losing their jobs .
7) Forced parental rights for rapists
One of the biggest difference in The Handmaid ’s Tale , at least for some of the handmaids , is how their commander ( who are glorified rapists ) get to keep their children , along with their wives . Right now , fair sex in seven states can be forced to partake in parental custody with their accused or convict rapists , and travail to repeal those laws have persist in to give way . The belated model is in Maryland , where rape victims have to negotiate with their accused rapists for custody rights , and also have to get permission from them to put their children up for adoption .
In Maryland , a female person delegatetried for the 9th timeto get rape victims full detention rights over their children . lamentably , though not surprisingly , the all - manlike instrument panel in the General Assembly go out of prison term and was unable to move forth the bill that would ’ve allow for char whose children were conceptualise via rape to blockade their rapist ’ parental right wing .
8) Needing a permit to wear high heels
Government - sanctioned garb codes incline to aim woman ’s attire more than men’s — for example , a female reporter waskicked outof the Speaker ’s Lobby on Thursday ( right around the AHCA ballot ) for wearing a bootless frock . While it ’s unfeigned that women ’s professional dress has more tractableness than men ’s , it also come across as horribly paternalistic when a public schoolhouse or government institution bans perfectly satisfactory clothes on the grounds that women might look “ indecent ” to the male gaze . It ’s why women in The Handmaid ’s Tale were forced to fit out so guardedly , to avoid calling attention to their bodies .
But that ’s not the only rationality woman ’s wear has been restricted . Take the city of Carmel - by - the - Sea , California , where char have to get apermitfrom City Hall if they plan to wear high heel above two column inch ( if the stiletto is less than one straight inch widely ) . The metropolis claims it ’s so they can protect themselves against lawsuits in the event that a woman falls — at least that ’s been the defensive measure since it was first create in the twenties . In any case , a woman caught wearing heels without this free permit is technically break the constabulary … even though the law rarely enforced .
9) Women can’t revoke consent for sex, even during violence
A noteworthy scenery in the first episode of Hulu ’s show , as testify above , has the handmaids shun one of their own for being mob - despoil , say it was her shift she was violated . A loophole in North Carolina ’s DoS natural law on sex and consent , set by a 1979 State Supreme Court case , says that it ’s not considered rape if a cleaning woman accord to sexuality ab initio , even if she by and by revokes her consent , even if her partner becomes violent .
The causa was recently quote toreduce Jonathan Wayne Guy ’s sentencefrom second - degree rape to a misdemeanor assault , establish him only 10 month in pokey . Amy Guy , the victim who agreed to sex with her estranged husband but begged him to stop after he became violent , has pledged to try and get the constabulary changed . There have beenattempts over the years , and many lawmakers jibe it should be fixed , but deplorably nothing ’s come about .
10) Employers can keep paying women less… if they already were doing so
On median , American cleaning woman realize 80 cents for every dollar mark a serviceman reach , and that identification number is even worse for women of colour . The Equal Pay Act of 1963 forbids employer from paying charwoman less for the same amount of work , unless it ’s based on higher rank , merit , amount or quality or work , or any other grounds other than their sex . Of course , that “ any other reason ” run to be cited quite a bit as an excuse to pay woman less than men … including the fact that , in the past , adult female were paid less than man .
Last month , an entreaty court ruledthat women could lawfully be paid less than workforce free-base on differences in their old pay , overturning a previous opinion that say women ’s pay should be re - evaluated because earlier salary are traditionally lower than men ’s due to systemic gender diagonal . The California instructor ’s lawyer said they ’re still plan the next pace , but he could see the cause going to the US Supreme Court . Unfortunately , since Trump is bent on make full the bench with judges who think women ca n’t make their own health care decisions , it does n’t seem likely they ’d care about how much womanhood get ante up .
As Offred would say ( in her head , since she ’s scarcely allowed to speak ): “ It ’s a flaming nightmare . ”
the handmaid ’s tale
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