'Handmaids' To Join Pro-Choice Group In Silent Protest At Access Health Center In Downers Grove

DOWNERS GROVE, IL — Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" paints a striking picture of a dystopian future in which women are held as slaves and forced to bear children for elite members of a patriarchal society. Drawing inspiration from the novel, women will dress as "handmaids" and join the pro-choice group Pink Angels for a silent protests at Access Health Center, 1700 75th St., Downers Grove on Saturday.

The "handmaids" will don long red robes and white hats to depict enslaved women from the book. Several other such "handmaids" protests have taken place across the country in the wake of a recent bill seeking to ban abortion at 20 weeks. At these protests, the women have carried signs in opposition to the bill.

The pro-choice group Pink Angels will be present, as they are most Saturdays, according to a media release. The statement said, "Pink Angels is a focus group, a part of Friends Who March, that counter protests anti-choice demonstrations." The release adds that the group also makes efforts to "expose Crisis Pregnancy Centers(CPCs)" that "often disguise themselves as health care facilities" to discourage women from getting abortions.

At Access Health Center, the "handmaids" and Pink Angels plan the silent demonstration as a counter-protest against 40 Days for Life, a religious group which aims to put "into action a desire to cooperate with God in the carrying out of His plan for the end of abortion."

The groups at Access Health Center are often mostly males, according to the Pink Angels, and have been seen carrying signs with vivid images of aborted fetuses as women enter the health center. 40 Days for Life often pray aloud in protest as part of their mission to bring attention to "the evil of abortion."

The silent protest at Access Health Center is set to begin at 8 a.m. and last until 10 a.m.

>>Image credit: Lisa Marie Farver