Advocacy group Demand Justice channels Margaret Atwood’s ‘Handmaids’ in silent protest
Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court have been subject to a number of protests, including one demonstration from women evoking The Handmaid’s Tale.
In the Hulu original series The Handmaid’s Tale, adapted from the eponymous book by Margaret Atwood, certain women serve as Handmaids. Their bodies are merely incubators for privileged families who cannot have children of their own. The Handmaids have no rights to their bodies, nor voice in the community, and are subject to overall slave-like conditions.
Read More: Irish pro-choice abortion group protest wearing chilling Handmaid’s Tale costumes
On September 4, the first day of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, about a dozen women donning the now iconic red gowns and white hats staged a silent protest at the courthouse where the Senate Judiciary Committee was hosting the session. The hearings were open to the public.
Reporter for The Hill Lydia Wheeler tweeted a picture of the Handmaids lining a corridor.
Protesters with Demand Justice dressed as handmaids stand outside Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing room. They are protesting his views on abortion. #SCOTUSKavanaugh pic.twitter.com/oQY7CN3fYD
— Lydia Wheeler (@WheelerLydia) September 4, 2018
Demand Justice, the liberal advocacy group who staged the protest, said in a statement that “Brett Kavanaugh is an extremist ideologue who, if confirmed to the Supreme Court, will take away women’s basic rights.”
“Right now in America, far too many women of color cannot access safe, affordable healthcare and the ability to decide whether, when and how to raise thriving families is out of reach.”
“Brett Kavanaugh will take this already harsh reality and make it worse.”
Read More: Why I personally know Brett Kavanaugh will make a great Supreme Court judge
Many believe that if Kavanaugh is confirmed for the Supreme Court, abortion rights will come under fire in the U.S. In October of 2017, Kavanaugh issued a dissent from a DC Circuit court ruling that said a teenage illegal immigrant was entitled access to abortion.
In his dissent, Kavanaugh said the court’s decision was "based on a constitutional principle as novel as it is wrong: a new right for unlawful immigrant minors in US government detention to obtain immediate abortion on demand."
Democrats are looking to stall the confirmation hearings as tens of thousands of documents pertaining to Kavanaugh’s career were published only the night before the first hearing, making them impossible to review in time.
This is not the first time that The Handmaid’s Tale costumes have been used as a form of protest. The red and white clad protesters showed up to Vice President Mike Pence’s visits to both Philadelphia and Denver. Internationally, the Handmaids have been spotted in Poland, Argentina, and Ireland.
Get a glimpse of the Handmaids protest here:
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