Rain Without Thunder - Society in 2042

Society in 2042

The process of making abortion illegal is very gradual at first. Before 2000 or so, only four states had severely restricted abortion. According to several interviewees, the decade between 2000 and 2010 was marked by a very strong reaction against women's rights as well as a significant reduction of legal protections against search and seizure. One interviewee describes how the Supreme Court now allows general search warrants of neighborhoods and apartment buildings, all in reaction to "hypercrime." Two additional developments are cited as furthering pro-life agenda. The Catholic Church accepts barrier contraception, which both a pro-life and pro-choice character suggest, restores the Church's credibility on sexual issues since it is now possible for devout Catholics to prevent pregnancy. A second issue is the demographic squeeze caused by the aging of the population. All this leads to the Twentieth-eighth Amendment, which legally classifies a fetus as a person, and the restriction of abortion to early-term and only in the limited cases of threats to a mother's life and in cases of reported rapes. In both cases there are significant legal hurdles to overcome before the procedure can be performed. Chemical contraception appears to be illegal as well. Andrea Murdoch describes a procedure available in Europe similar to Norplant II (not FDA approved in 1992) but shows an ignorance of how chemical contraception works by calling it a "baby bomb," (that is, an abortifacient).

By 2042 feminism is virtually gone from the public consciousness. One character, a historian, declares that no woman's political movement has ever existed. Of the two characters who most closely match modern feminist thought, one is clearly suffering from dementia because of implied psychiatric abuse. The other is an elderly woman whose feminists beliefs are disregarded as impolitic by her younger colleague. That colleague, Linda Hunt, is the head of the Atwood Society (presumably a reference to author Margaret Atwood and her dystopic novel A Handmaid's Tale). Hunt's character repudiates the idea of universal abortion but is campaigning to protect women from fetal murder prosecution. She even describes having pregnant women declared legally incompetent and thus incapable of criminal intent. She admits this is a fiction but claims laws are often built on such fiction. The fact that a 2042 moderate or liberal activist in 2042 would campaign to have women declared mentally unfit to make decisions about their reproductive health is an ironic demonstration of how far attitudes have shifted by 2042.

The interviews take place indoors in offices, prisons, and homes. There is little indication of technological progress beyond hints at faster air travel (the trip to Sweden is said to take two hours) and improved neo-natal procedures (fetuses are said to be able to survive after only four months gestation).