Prohibition on abortion

The Prohibition on abortion is one of the most brutally enforced laws in the Republic of Gilead, transforming what was once a legal medical procedure into a capital crime punishable by public hanging. The law operates retroactively, reaching back into the time before the regime to prosecute doctors who performed abortions when such acts were legal. Its purpose is twofold: to punish those who facilitated reproductive choice in the past and to ensure that no woman in Gilead can ever again seek to prevent a birth. The law is part of a broader system that denies women control over their own bodies, reducing them to "two-legged wombs" whose sole function is reproduction.

Legal Framework and Enforcement

The prohibition is absolute: there is no exception for rape, fetal deformity, or danger to the mother's life. The regime has outlawed all forms of birth control and abortion, declaring them irreligious. Women who attempt to terminate a pregnancy face death, and the penalty for doctors who perform abortions is execution by hanging on the Wall. The bodies of executed doctors are displayed with placards around their necks bearing a drawing of a human fetus, making explicit the crime for which they were killed. The law is enforced through searches of hospital records and informants, often ex-nurses or other doctors hoping to save themselves. Evidence from a single woman is no longer admissible, so two witnesses are required, but the regime's network of informants is extensive enough to produce convictions.

Retroactive Justice and Public Spectacle

The regime makes no apology for the retroactive nature of the law. As Offred observes, the men executed for abortion are "time travelers, anachronisms" who "have come here from the past." The official justification is that their crimes are retroactive because they have committed atrocities and must be made into examples. The bodies are left hanging on the Wall for days, sometimes weeks, so that as many people as possible will see them. The white bags over their heads make them look like dolls or scarecrows, but the blood that seeps through the cloth where the mouth must have been creates a "small red one, like the mouths painted with thick brushes by kindergarten children" — a child's idea of a smile that fixes the attention and reminds viewers that these are not snowmen after all.

Ideological Justification

The prohibition is grounded in a selective reading of Scripture. The regime's official doctrine holds that women are "saved by childbearing" and that any attempt to prevent birth is a sin against God and the state. The Commander reads from the Bible during the Ceremony, reciting the story of Rachel and Leah: "Give me children, or else I die." This verse becomes the motto of the Handmaids' existence. At the Rachel and Leah Re-education Center, the Aunts drill the Handmaids on the doctrine that there is no such thing as a sterile man — only women who are fruitful and women who are barren. The word "sterile" itself is forbidden when applied to men. The Aunts also show films of the pre-Gilead era, including pornography and documentaries about "Unwomen," to demonstrate what they claim was the degradation of women before the regime "saved" them.

Consequences for Women

For Handmaids, the prohibition means that any pregnancy, no matter how conceived or how damaged the fetus, must be carried to term. There is no prenatal testing, and the chances of giving birth to a "shredder" — a severely deformed baby — are one in four, due to the environmental pollution and chemical contamination of the pre-Gilead era. Women who give birth to such babies are not punished, but the babies are taken away and disposed of. The prohibition also creates a black market in fertility services. Doctors sometimes proposition Handmaids, offering to impregnate them with their own sperm, claiming that the Commanders are often sterile. The penalty for such acts is death, but the risk is sometimes taken. Serena Joy herself proposes that Offred become pregnant by Nick, the chauffeur, in a desperate attempt to produce a child for the household.

Resistance and Subversion

Despite the severity of the law, some women find ways to resist. The doctor who examines Offred offers to help her conceive, whispering that "most of those old guys can't make it anymore" and that "lots of women do it." Offred refuses, but the offer itself demonstrates that the prohibition is not absolute in practice. Serena Joy's proposal to use Nick as a surrogate is another form of subversion, one that the Wife herself orchestrates. The existence of Jezebel's, a brothel for high-ranking officials, further undermines the regime's official ideology of sexual purity. These acts of resistance are dangerous, but they show that even under a totalitarian system, individuals find ways to assert their agency.

Thematic Significance

The Prohibition on abortion is central to the novel's critique of patriarchal control over women's bodies. It is the legal mechanism that transforms women into reproductive vessels, stripping them of autonomy and reducing their value to their fertility. The law is enforced with spectacular brutality, but it is also riddled with hypocrisy and exceptions that benefit the powerful. The novel suggests that such laws are not about morality but about power: the power to define life, to control women, and to eliminate dissent. The prohibition is a key element of the regime's biopolitics, its attempt to manage the population through control over reproduction. It is also a reminder of how quickly legal rights can be erased and how easily violence can be justified in the name of tradition or religion.