Margaret Atwood’s bestselling book The Handmaid’s Tale may be based on a dystopian future, but the events she describes have never felt more chillingly close to the bone.

The 1985 novel, recently adapted into a critically acclaimed TV show (starring Elisabeth Moss as protagonist, Offred), takes place in Gilead, a near-future version of North America in which fertile women are forced into a life of sexual servitude and surrogacy.

And with each week bringing real-life news of yet another attempt by President Trump to dismantle women’s rights and freedoms, such as his current plan to allow employers to refuse to cover birth control, it can feel like we’re inching ever closer towards a world where the events of the book become a reality.

Now Atwood herself has spoken out against one of the newly proposed laws ringing true with the events in her book, by taking aim at anti-abortion legislation currently awaiting the final stage of approval in Texas. Named Senate Bill 8, the ruling would make it significantly harder for a woman to end her pregnancy, as well as making it a requirement for the foetal tissue to be buried or cremated.

The Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood slams new anti-abortion law