Harris invokes ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ after Alabama lawmakers pass abortion law

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) invoked the TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale” in a fundraising push for national abortion rights groups in response to the Alabama Senate’s passage of a bill that would severely restrict abortion in the state.

In an email, the senator sharply criticized state lawmakers who voted this week for a bill that would criminalize abortion in all cases except for when the life of the mother was endangered by the pregnancy.

{mosads}”Threatening to punish doctors who provide abortion care with up to 99 years of jail time,” Harris wrote. “This isn’t a scene from The Handmaid’s Tale. This is happening in Alabama — in our country — in the year 2019.”

“This is a blatant attack on Roe v. Wade. It is a direct attack on women across our country. Restricting access to safe, legal abortion puts women’s lives at risk,” she continued. “We cannot afford to wring our hands. We need to fight back now, raising our voices together to say we won’t be dragged backward and putting our collective power to work.”

The fundraising email concluded with a call for donations not to Harris’s campaign, but rather to a series of organizations such as the National Network of Abortion Funds that provides money for abortion services in the state and around the country.

Other 2020 Democrats were quick to criticize the Alabama Senate’s passage of the bill on Wednesday, vowing to battle Republican efforts to restrict access to abortion.

“This ban is dangerous and exceptionally cruel—and the bill’s authors want to use it to overturn Roe v. Wade. I’ve lived in that America and let me tell you: We are not going back—not now, not ever. We will fight this. And we will win,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Twitter.

“The government’s role should be to make sure all women have access to comprehensive affordable care, and that includes preventive care, contraceptive services, prenatal through postpartum care, and safe and legal abortion,” added South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D).

“But instead of ensuring care, our legislators are ignoring science, criminalizing abortion, and punishing women,” he said.