Women protested abortion laws in Texas wearing 'Handmaid's Tale' robes

If you haven’t read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale before, it’s follows a dystopian world in which fertile women are forced to become breeders for the rest of society.

And that includes wearing heavy, red robes which cover their faces.

So as several laws which would restrict abortions were considered in Texas, several women decided to protest – by wearing these uniforms from the novel.

On Monday, a group of Texas women arrived at the senate chambers in the iconic robes.

One bill discussed at the chambers will effectively ban common procedures used for second trimester abortions, and another would allow doctors to withhold information regarding fetal anomlies from pregnant women.

Heather Busby, executive director at advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice Texas told The Huffington Post that the law would effectively allow doctors to “lie to their patients” – the idea being that if a medical professional discovered severe abnormalities and feared the mother might choose to terminate the pregnancy, there wouldn’t be negative consequences for the doctor for failing to tell them.

Sales of the book have rocketed since President Donald Trump’s election as anti-choice legislation sweeps the US.

In the novel, women are kept within a strict social hierarchy; women of lower classes – handmaids -bear the children of women of higher ranks, while other women are kept as servants and domestic workers.

Handmaids, one of which the book centres around, are reduced to their reproductive functions and are not allowed the pleasures and freedoms women are usually allowed in modern or Western society.

The first bill, which will stop particular methods used for second trimester abortions, passed – while the second bill is likely to head for a final vote on the floor later this week.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK.

Read more from Yahoo Style UK:

Some women seeking an abortion may soon need the father’s permission – and that’s not right

The problems still facing women in the UK today