On Monday, about a dozen women wearing red robes and white bonnets walked into the Texas Senate gallery as it considered two controversial abortion-related bills.
S.B. 415 would make the common dilation and evacuation abortion procedure (called “dismemberment abortion” in the bill’s language) illegal, while the other, S.B. 25, would essentially make it OK for doctors to lie to women about their fetus’ abnormalities if they thought it could cause them to get an abortion.
The women activists who showed up for the proceedings were dressed in a nod to Margaret Atwood‘s dystopian novel A Handmaid’s Tale, in which women are stripped of their rights, with some becoming designated breeders. The book has seen a resurgence since President Trump was elected, and a Netflix adaptation of the novel, starring Elisabeth Moss, is also coming in April.
According to the Cut, the robed women carried protest signs, which is against Texas Senate rules, and eventually got ejected. Regardless, they gained a few fans on Twitter under the hashtag #FightBackTX.
https://twitter.com/nanarchist/status/843911082842439687
Women dressed as handmaids are protesting anti-abortion bills at the Capitol. #FightBackTX #txlege pic.twitter.com/w5EQfBqNtG
— Planned Parenthood Texas Votes (@PPTXVotes) March 20, 2017
By Monday’s end, S.B. 415 passed the Senate and will now head to the House; a Senate vote on S.B. 25 will likely happen sometime this week. In the meantime, be on the lookout for more handmaid robes. They may just be the new pussy hats.