The Motherhood Mandate

She dreamed of adventure. Now she’s detained by the authorities. Her crime? She’s pregnant.

Rylee Williams is looking forward to a gap year before she heads East for college. Europe. Volunteer work. Maybe even mentoring her old high school’s robotics team.

Pregnancy was the last thing she expected. Detained under Wisconsin’s Unborn Child Protection Act and forced into the Wisconsin Individual Family Education program with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Rylee finds that decisions about her body, her movements, and her future no longer belong entirely to her.

The state calls it protection. Rylee is beginning to understand what that protection costs.

The Motherhood Mandate asks what happens when pregnancy gives the state the authority to decide what happens next.

Download the free sample or press play to listen to the sample, narrated by Elena Moore.