The famed Handmaid’s Tale television series, an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 book, brings to life a dystopian America in which democracy and freedom are wiped away and replaced by an authoritarian government. Sound familiar?Â
If you are new to the piece of speculative fiction, my previous article, Handmaid’s Tale: Why Everyone Needs to Watch It, briefly explains Gilead’s dynamic structure, which is what becomes the new name of the United States in the story. This article is a sequel to my first, published in the fall of 2022, four months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. Being a fan of the show and someone invested in politics, I noticed the startling comparisons between reality and the dystopian world. I was surprised to learn that most people I knew at the time had not seen Handmaid’s Tale, which inspired me to write my first article. Besides the initial reasons for watching the show, such as the phenomenal acting by the cast and the compelling plot, and some striking comparisons between Gilead’s totalitarian regime and the U.S. government. At the time, I never would have expected anything to happen that would be far worse than the overturning of Roe v Wade, and I hoped that women across the United States would be legally allowed to get an abortion. However, we are witnessing something far worse.
Project 2025, a political initiative and blueprint for the next conservative movement, was created by The Heritage Foundation in 2023 but received more media attention this year in 2024 due to the Presidential Election. The 900-page MAGA wishlist shows a plan of how to turn the United States into an authoritarian Christian nationalist country. In this article, I will focus on how it impacts women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. However, if you are interested in learning about other legislation plans in Project 2025 and its ties to Donald Trump and his former administration and most likely administration if he wins the election in November, read this New York Times article by Simon J. Levien: What Is Project 2025, and Why Did Trump Disavow It at the Debate? Although Trump disclaims Project 2025, it was written by his closest advisors and should not be discounted.
Women’s Rights, Lost.
In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are treated like men’s property. The women in red, also known as the handmaids, are seen as cattle, bred, and sent to the next owner under the government’s tight supervision. If any woman disobeys, she is sentenced to death. In the next conservative administration, women’s rights will be completely wiped away, and they will be in fear for their own lives. Project 2025 plans to remove the Food and Drug Association’s 24-hour approval to receive mifepristone, the most widely used abortion pill, as well as mandating federal laws to enforce stricter rules of the use of the pill only to be allowed up to seven weeks in pregnancy instead of 10 weeks. Women will not know they are pregnant for a minimum of four to seven weeks (To learn more, read: What is Project 2025? What to know about the conservative blueprint for a second Trump administration.) This law would make gaining access to the abortion pill in the legal amount of time impossible. To make it far worse, Project 2025 wants to ban mailing mifepristone and receiving it only in a pharmacy, adding another difficult obstacle to access to abortion by pill. After Roe v. Wade was overturned, some hospitals are being forced to deny women in life-threatening positions, such as having a miscarriage, an emergency abortion, which has already caused women to lose the ability to have children and even die due to sepsis. Doctors who support a woman’s right to an abortion are fearful of the state government’s wrath if they go against the law to help a woman in a life-or-death situation. ( To learn more, read: Doctors who want to defy abortion laws say it’s too risky) To go further down this road, Project 2025 wants to remove the Biden administration’s Reproductive Healthcare Task Force and replace it with a Pro-life task force which would be used to track women’s pregnancies and abortions in each state, which completely dehumanizes women, tracking them as if they are cattle. To add the cherry on top, this Gilead twin wants to prosecute women if they had an illegal abortion and be tried just as harshly as committing manslaughter. In 2023, South Carolina Republicans tried to pass a bill that would subjugate women who had an abortion to be able to receive the death penalty.
LGBTQ+ Rights
In Project 2025, there are multiple mentions of the LGBTQ+ community and the people behind the 900-page plan that eliminates their protection. The sections of Project 2025 that target the LGBTQ+ community mention false claims that say that children are safer in heterosexual marriages, which clearly attacks same-sex families and that same-sex marriages should be considered second-class. The Christian nationalists have multiple religious mentions that harm the legislature that protects the LGBTQ+ community, such as businesses that try to deny same-sex couples access to their establishment solely because of who they want to be in a relationship with. Project 2025 specifically targets the transgender community wanting to cut federal funding for gender-affirming care for both adults and minors. During Trump’s administration, he banned transgender people from enlisting in the military, which was immediately turned around when the Biden administration began. But suppose Trump were to have a second administration. In that case, he will likely reinstate that ban as well as Project 2025’s agenda on the LGBTQ+. An article by Angie James from Teen Vogue dives further into the multiple issues the LGBTQ+ community would face if Project 2025 took effect: Here’s how Project 2025 Could Decimate LGBTQ+ Rights.Â
If you want insight into what a Christian nationalist country may look like in the United States, I suggest watching The Handmaid’s Tale. Beyond the odd fashion choices enforced on the citizens of the dystopian country, a second Trump administration and Gilead are two sides of the same coin.