Abortion in the United States: The TV series “Maid Tale” is no longer a fiction

The last two episodes of Season 5 of The Handmaid’s Tale – adapted from Margaret Atwood’s bestseller – were filmed in Toronto last Friday when the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade took over the same government in 1973. This decision deprives women of their constitutional right to have an abortion and allows some states to ban abortion in their territory.

When protesters immediately gathered in front of the Supreme Court office in Washington to express their opposition to the decision, some women wore a June costume (Elizabeth Moss) to The Handmaid’s Tale, a servant who loves women. Over the past two years, this attire has become a symbol of women’s struggle to protect their reproductive rights, as this tweet from a Reuters reporter shows:

“We have been told many times over the years that we wanted to be less relevant, but unfortunately the show was very topical. And today this is even more true“- condemns the executive producer of the series, Warren Littlefield, in an interview Deadline.

We all want to have some weird, dystopian concept that no one can believe. We all want to be just a completely fictional graphic novel.

Written by Margaret Atwood Scarlet Maid More than ten years later the decision of Roe v. Wade, who defended women’s rights in the United States. His novel – which until recently can still be called dystopian – depicts the near future inspired by 17th century New England.^E In a century when the patriarchal and totalitarian state – known as the Republic of Gilead – suppressed the basic rights of women.

It was the Hulu platform that created the series in the United States, under the supervision of its creator, Bruce Miller, during the second term of Barack Obama. The first season was immediately ordered in the spring of 2016, when at that time there was still no threat to women’s rights on the horizon.

In November 2016, in the midst of the filming of the first season, a significant political change took place. “On election night, we all stood very late when we thought we were celebrating the arrival of the first female president of the United States. We thought the show would always be relevant and important“, Recalls Littlefield.Then suddenly Donald Trump was elected and the world changed. When we aired, that was the beginning of the Trump administration.“

For the past six years, before Friday’s ruling by a majority of the Conservative Supreme Court, partly named by Trump, there were a number of state laws restricting abortion in places like Georgia, Ohio and Texas. When women fought, wearing a servant costume during a protest became an image of resistance.

“It is a great pride to see demonstrations across the country – and also around the world – where women wear a maid costume, dress, hood and see that it becomes a symbol of the struggle for freedom. Women and their rights.“, Continued Warren Litfield.

“But today I feel tremendous sadness, anger, and frustration over where we are in America right now and what it says. In recent years we have seen the rise of extreme right-wingers across the planet. Unfortunately, I think the United States is in the lead, and with the rise of this movement, restrictions on women’s rights and freedoms continue.“

In the next fifth season, Littlefield announces that “We look at how right-wingers even penetrated Canada, which was once considered a holy place; We show that Gilead also appears there.“

Is the Supreme Court decision an incentive to continue the story of the maids with the sixth season? “I think from day one the goal was to have a strong and dramatic narrative that unites us in its struggle with June and gives us hope. He did not give up and we can not give up“, – he said.

“I think this is a strong message: despite everything that June faces in Gilead, there is a ray of hope in her struggle and determinism. I think it is valuable and important. We’re still relevant, and until Bruce and the writing team feel we have more to say, we’ll do it.“