In “The Handmade’s Tale,” Atwood makes the bizarre observation of some abortion doctors who had been killed by the tyrannical theocratic regime of Gilead. Offred laments that they did nothing wrong. However, how blind is it to suggest that abortion can be less tyrannical?

The forgotten dystopia in THT is that of the one before the fascists took over. One of complete secular dominance in the culture; which includes the unlimited access to the killing of the unborn. It is a forgotten piece of the novel.

Perhaps one way to say it would be this: to do evil, in a country that permits you to do evil - for a purpose or set of values of which a state power approves - is not suddenly a virtue. The killing of 1) the unborn, and 2) the ideologically different, are both evil.