In Margaret Atwood‘s 1985 dystopian science fiction novel The Handmaid’s Tale, the United States has been overthrown by Christian extremists and become a totalitarian state, a theonomy, in which women have become property. The book was written during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, a darling of the religious right, and set in the near future. The book serves as a warning against the rise of the Christian right, which threatened to erode the hard won freedoms of women. Today, 34 years later, under the even more extreme presidency of Donald Trump, who panders to the religious right more than Reagan ever dared, the United States is poised to deny an important right from women: abortion.
