January 14, 2025
The Handmaid’s Games
By John Myers
By Reina Copeland
Donald J Trump was the 45th president of the United States of America. During this time Trump used his power to help overturn the infamous Roe v Wade case making it so states would have the decision on how women’s bodily autonomy should be protected. As a result, 210 people with the ability to give birth in the first year of Roe v Wade being overturned have been prosecuted for having pregnancy losses. Women like Brittaany Watts, according to a 2024 PBS report, who miscarry have been investigated under the suspicion of “intentionally aborting” their babies, the mortality rate for expecting mothers in heavily regulated abortion states has increased by 7%, according to a 2021 Tulane University report. These bans will only increase the mortality rates for expecting mothers, especially Black and Hispanic women who are three times and two times more likely to need abortion care, which was reported by Johns Hopkins University in 2023.
Yet Donald Trump was re-elected as our 47th president in a major landslide. Giving him another chance was and will be one of the most monumental mistakes in American history. Donald Trump’s plans don’t further anyone else but himself and other white supremacist misogynists who believe women are just objects for men to use. A manifesto of sorts entitled Project 2025 was published by members of Donald Trump’s cabinet, and lists the future plans for America under Trump’s presidency. These policies include getting rid of emergency contraceptives in some states, changing the Department of Health to the Department of Life in order to reject abortion as health care, and removing birth control as a way to be consequential towards sex.
These policies aim to suppress the rights of women and make the systems that were already misogynistic, places where women and other non-gender conforming individuals are unheard.
This oppression of women of rights is reminiscent of evil leaders in novels like Professor Umbridge in Harry Potter or President Snow in The Hunger Games. These actions he expresses are reminiscent of real- life totalitarian leaders like Adolf Hitler and the Taliban where people deemed minorities are dealt a card of oppression and discrimination.
Like Katniss Evergreen in The Hunger Games, many minorities are fighting back. Women have started to participate in the 4B movement, a movement that originated in South Korea where women remain celibate or show abstinence towards men with some even getting implanted birth control before Donald Trump’s reelection as a way to protect themselves against men and the sexist policies that Donald Trump plans to implement. Like the rebellion of District 13 in The Hunger Games or Dumbledore’s army in Harry Potter, the people want to be free and want to have the rights that were guaranteed to them by the constitution. Women all over the world have been showing support for the women of the United States.. We need community right now, the rights of every American are going to be violated and totalitarianism will be on the rise. Tales like The Handmaid’s Tale and The Hunger Games are going to come true from poor states with children who are struggling to women who are going to be forced into baby making machines. But like The Hunger Games we need to come together to fight back. To quote Katniss Evergreen, “Are you coming to the tree? Are you coming to your community to help each other rise? Are you protesting and exercising your constitutional rights? The Handmaid’s Game is coming, may the odds be in our favor.
