In 1986 Margaret Atwater published a book titled The Handmaid's Tale. It's a first person telling of the journey of one woman,Offred. It tells of her life after the coup in which fundamentalist Christians came to power in what was once the United States but now called Gilead.
There were civil wars going on as Gilead tried exert its domain and found resistance in the Western part of the country. Offred's family was caught as they tried to flee to Canada, her husband killed and her daughter taken from her to be placed with a good Christian family.
There was a fertility crisis and since Offred (not her given name) was fertile she escaped the harsh punishments of non-fertile women and was assigned to an infertile couple to give them a child. She was subjected to a ritualized rape every month as she entered her time of fertility.
It was set in the not too distant future and the technology used to force these changes was just on the horizon but all of it could happen today. Given the statements of candidates for the Republican presidential candidates it not hard to imagine these things really happening Ben Carson and Marc Rubio want to ban abortions even in cases of rape, incest or a threat to the mother's life. These people could bring to life the dystopian future described in this book.
I think it's time to read this story again or for the first time as we approach the latest election cycle. We must dedicate ourselves to preventing that world from becoming a reality.
