Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt delivered the Republican response to President Joe Biden's State of the Union on Thursday night, presenting a counter-narrative to his critiques of the GOP and highlighting what she sees as a darker reality under his leadership.
But her remarks—made from her kitchen table in Montgomery, Alabama—inspired comparisons to The Handmaid's Tale, a novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood that was written at the height of the Reagan administration and satirized political, social, and religious trends of the 1980s.
The book, published in 1985, was inspired at least in part by the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. That overthrow of the Shah's rule saw a theocracy established that subjugated women in a strict patriarchal society, gutted female agency and individuality in addition to reproductive rights, and limited all the other ways women can assert their independence. It was then famously turned into a critically acclaimed series on Hulu at the beginning of Trump's presidency.
Britt characterized the American dream as "a nightmare" and her emphasis on her role as a wife and mother of two children as well as her claim that the "country we know and love seems to be slipping away" prompted many to reflect on the rise of a society like Gilead, the one depicted in the novel, in which women are forced to bear children against their will.
New York City public defender Eliza Orlins noted that someone had edited Britt's Wikipedia page in response to her speech, referring to her as "an American politican and attorney who is a member of The Handmaid's Tale and not one of the good ones."
Other memes were similarly on point, with many pointing out Britt was even dressed in the same color as the wives married to Gilead's high-ranking men as depicted on the television adaptation.
Britt issued her response against the backdrop of a recent blow to reproductive freedom after an Alabama Supreme Court decision that labeled frozen embryos as legally equivalent to "children."
The ruling, which allows couples to sue for "wrongful death" in cases of destroyed frozen embryos, has raised significant questions about the legal and ethical implications surrounding reproductive health.
Following the court's decision, the University of Alabama at Birmingham health system took a significant step by pausing its Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility services. Concerns about potential criminal prosecution and punitive damages led to the suspension of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments in various Alabama fertility clinics.
However, state healthcare providers resumed some IVF services on Thursday, following the enactment of a new law by Kay Ivey, the Republican governor. The legislation is designed to shield IVF patients and providers from legal ramifications stemming from the contentious state Supreme Court decision.
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