Roe V. Wade is NOT a political book. It is Matt Shaw's idea of a possible future based on current trends. When Roe V. Wade was overturned in 2022 the idea that life begins at conception or near conception as well as the push to block contraceptives is paving the way towards a future that may look like the one depicted in this book. The cost of living has soared, and jobs are scarce.

Civil rights have fallen by the wayside as more and more of the things we count as permanent and irrevocable have been cut down. Segregation, Gay Rights, Women's Rights, all of these things are gone. The only thing that has any rights are the unborn children, but their rights come at the cost of the women who bear them.

It doesn't specify the year or exact location, but it's assumed to be in the US and a possible near-ish future.

Roe V. Wade opens on a scene showing Cate Hart, she is heavily sedated and living "her best life" (I say with irony), she is bound to a bed in an institutional room with other women, all sedated and bound to beds carefully monitored to make sure that the unborn children that they have been gestating are "kept healthy". All their bodily needs taken care of through tubes, they are constantly sedated and for the most part have nothing to do but wait until they are taken to the delivery room.

In this future, women showing any little sign of hesitancy or found "breaking the rules" are drug kicking and screaming to this institution that the outside world knows as a "birthing center" where hesitant mothers are taken and "pampered" until the day they give birth. No one asks what happens to the mothers and children afterwords, but it's not given thought. However, because this place which is subsidized by the government and makes it's employees sign NDA's no one ever talks.

This book looks upon the life of Cate and her husband Jack, who have just discovered that even after Jack's vasectomy, Cate became pregnant. They find out on Christmas and it wasn't a present either of them wanted. Cate's previous pregnancy was a very hard one and she was told she shouldn't have any more children. Work is very hard and the cost of living has soared out of control. However, because of the laws Cate and Jack must put a brave face on and make sure everyone believes that this is a wanted child. We follow the path that brought Cate to the "Birthing Center" where we first see her.

Then there is Claud who is a brand new worker at this institute which has many different rooms and wings, his job is to simply push the various gurneys with women from one area to another. It's the first week of his new job, of which he was grateful to get because jobs are very scarce in the future. Claud is finding out quickly that there are things he sees at his new job that don't sit well with him, but because he has signed an NDA and is grateful for the work, he sucks it up. He comes home to his young wife Lauren, whom he met in high school and married out of college.

Claud and Lauren hope to earn enough to buy a home and raise a family. Each day Claud becomes more and more distant as he has to choke more and more of his unease and disgust about his word down. When Lauren finds out that she is pregnant she is happy and hopeful, while Claud is secretly horrified because of the things he has seen but cannot speak of while at work.

This book scared the fuck out of me. It paints a future that I want no part of and can still see happening if things go the way they are. It isn't about pro-life, or pro-choice, it's about how far will we allow the rights of women be stripped away for the rights of an unborn child. How many other rights will be stripped away from other groups once the US gets used to the loss of reproductive rights, what rights of privacy will we become accustomed to losing?

Matt Shaw is a great horror writer, his books are thought provoking and gruesome. He often writes from multiple non-connected character's POV and has had many unique storylines. I highly recommend his work if you are interested in horror and aren't too squeamish.

However, this particular book is his take on how the future is looking. It isn't pretty. ( )