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Silent protest over Manx abortion laws

Handmaids make visual impact to raise cause

Campaigners for reform of the Island's abortion laws have staged a silent public protest at Tynwald Hill.

A pro-choice group appeared as women from Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale, which is currently a major TV drama series.

Dressed in red cloaks and veils and white bonnets, they carried no placards, nor approached members of the public - explaining their cause instead, by handing slips of paper to those who asked.

The fictional Handmaids are a class of women kept for purely reproductive purposes by their rulers, in a dystopian future society.

One of the women, who didn't want to be named, said they aimed to highlight the limited choices Island women have in seeking terminations: 

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