Handmaid' Tale
Women dressed as handmaids from the novel, film and television series "The Handmaid's Tale" demonstrate against cuts for Planned Parenthood in the Republican U.S. Senate healthcare bill at the Capitol in Washington, U.S., June 27, 2017. Joshua Roberts/REUTERS

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday that he would delay the vote on the Republican Senate health care bill until after the July 4th recess, and protestors dressed like the women from the book and television show, "Handmaid's Tale,” might have helped.

A group of activists with Planned Parenthood’s “People’s Filibuster” dressed in red cloaks and white bonnets and protested around the U.S. Capitol Tuesday.

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The 1985 book by author Margaret Atwood details a dystopian future where a Christian fundamentalist group takes over the U.S. and forms a theocratic military dictatorship. In this new country, women have no rights, and some women are subjugated and used merely for reproductive purposes. These women are also forced to wear the cloaks and bonnets.

The book was adapted into a television show by Hulu this year and stars actress Elizabeth Moss. In the series, Moss’ character Offred (so named because she literally belongs to a man named Fred) remarks about how the world slowly slipped into a dictatorship in front of everyone’s eyes.

“Now I'm awake to the world. I was asleep before. That's how we let it happen. When they slaughtered Congress, we didn't wake up. When they blamed terrorists and suspended the Constitution, we didn't wake up then, either,” said Moss’ character. “Nothing changes instantaneously. In a gradually heating bathtub, you'd be boiled to death before you knew it.”

The Republican bill, written by only men, aims to be the start of dismantling the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. It would also defund Planned Parenthood for one year.

“We deduced to dress in the 'Handmaids'-inspired costumes because the novel/television series presents a dystopia where women's bodies are not their own,” said 21-year-old student, Elena Lipsiea from Albany, New York to CNN Tuesday. “This narrative is all too real. We want our senators and administrators to know just how serious we take their legislation and our right to health care. The costumes make a visual statement and demonstrate how seriously we take this.”

READ: How Does The Senate Health Care Bill Affect Seniors?

The bill makes deep cuts to Medicaid while also cutting taxes for upper-income Americans and businesses. According to Vox Friday, Medicaid covers the cost of 50 percent of births in the U.S. and 75 percent of public money spent on family planning comes from Medicaid. The bill makes essential health benefits optional and at the discretion of individual states. These essential benefits were a list of expenses that insurance was mandated to cover under the Affordable Health Care Act. One of them is pregnancy, maternity, and newborn care both before and after birth.

Because the bill is a reconciliation bill, it needed only a simple majority of the Republican-held Senate, as opposed to the customary 60 votes. McConnell couldn’t wrangle the 51 votes he needed. Two women, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, were particularly concerned about defunding of Planned Parenthood.