Women wearing long red cloaks and white bonnets have become an increasingly common sight in government buildings around the country in recent months.
The latest state to see a protest inspired by Margaret Atwood’s dystopian feminist classic The Handmaid’s Tale is Ohio.
On Tuesday, women filed into the statehouse on Tuesday to protest Senate Bill 145, a proposed ban on the most common method for second-trimester abortions.
Photos of the protestors posted to social media by groups like NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio on Tuesday show the women walking through the Statehouse in pairs, much like handmaids in Atwood’s novel (and the much-acclaimed Hulu adaptation). The images showed them with their eyes downcast as they waited for the first hearing on the bill to commence.
Dilation and evacuation, or “D&E,” is a safe method for second-trimester abortions. The Guttmacher Institute has said that banning the procedure disproportionately affects women who are already at a disadvantage when it comes to obtaining timely abortion care.