In the foreword for Marilyn French’s three volume history of women in the world, Atwood concludes: 

 

In this piece, written in 2015, to mark the 30th anniversary of The Handmaid’s Tale Atwood talks about the development of the novel following the second wave of feminism, and the importance of the law in Gilead.

“The answer to how to cram the women back into the homes was simple: dial back history a hundred years - no, even less. Take away women’s jobs and their access to money - the latter via their bank and credit cards. Oh, and their most recently won civil rights, such as the right to vote and the right to own property, and the right to their own children. To do that, you’d change the law. Some people are fond of invoking “the rule of law,” but they should remember that there have been some very unjust laws. The Nuremberg Laws - directed against Jews - were laws. The Fugutive Slave Act was a law. The decree forbidding literacy for American slaves in the South was a law… I could go on for a very long time on that subject.” 

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This piece from 2018 was written in support of the movement for reproductive rights in Argentina. The movement celebrated victory in 2021, when the Senate of the country approved abortion legalization in a historic decision, a ground-breaking move for a region that has some of the world's most restrictive termination laws.

“No one is forcing women to have abortions. No one either should force them to undergo childbirth. Enforce childbirth if you wish, Argentina, but at least call that enforcing by what it is. It is slavery: the claim to own and control another’s body, and to profit by that claim.”