Choice by Jodi Picoult – Bookchatter@Cookiebiscuit

April 27, 2025

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In this gripping and provocative short story, #1 New York Times best-selling and award-winning author Jodi Picoult delivers a chilling glimpse into a dystopian world, seen through the fractured relationship of an ex-couple facing an unimaginable dilemma.

Please note: This content is intended for adult audiences. It addresses themes of pregnancy loss and may be distressing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.

Margot and James are done—for real this time. Their breakup was sealed when James made it clear: he never wants children.

Narrated by Therese Plummer
Audiobook Tour – 7th – 18th April
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Length: 38 mins
Publisher: Audible Original

But on the most important morning of his career, James—an ambitious lawyer at a prestigious firm—wakes to find himself inexplicably pregnant, part of a baffling epidemic sweeping the nation. As his condition becomes impossible to hide, James is denied a long-anticipated promotion, leaving him spiralling.

Across town, Margot, a dedicated social worker, faces the flood of frightened, pregnant teenage boys seeking answers no one has. When James calls her in desperation, Margot is forced to confront not only their shared past but the harsh reality of navigating a post-Roe America—where the personal has become terrifyingly political.

My Review

“In the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade, the US Supreme Court established a woman’s constitutional right to abortion, ruling that states could not prohibit abortions during the first trimester, and could only regulate them to protect the health of the pregnant person during the second trimester, and could ban them outright after the point of fetal viability (around 24 weeks).

“On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, ending the federal constitutional right to abortion and allowing states to regulate or ban abortion.” I mention this because I am in the UK and my fellow Brits may need some background.

Many states in the US now ban a woman’s ‘right to choose’. The extent of the ban varies and in some states includes rape and incest, such as forcing a 12-year-old girl to go to full term, even if she was raped by her own father. Abortion is still legal in some states, but in others it is even illegal to travel to one of those states to seek medical intervention. And the doctor can go to prison as well for ‘helping’.

So what would happen if men had babies instead of women? In Jodi Picoult’s latest short story Choice, 32-year-old James wakes up one morning and discovers he is pregnant. He then finds out that there are tens of thousands of other pregnant men in the US. All of them had to have had intercourse.

James recently split up from long term partner Margot, having told her he never wanted kids. At one point he asks her if it’s his fault that he is pregnant because of what he said. She tells him that even he is not that important.

Well the first thing most of the men want to do is terminate the unplanned pregnancy. But of course it’s now illegal and ‘men’ made the laws. But then it didn’t affect them, did it? They didn’t need to worry about being passed over for promotion, or the pain of labour, or losing their figures. Not that any of those would be the real reasons for undergoing a termination. Being a single mother, having no access to healthcare, no medical insurance, no way of bringing up a child alone, emotionally or financially, would be nearer the mark. Or being raped, or incest.

It’s such an interesting take on things. I won’t tell you the whole story. You need to listen and decide for yourself what you think.

Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the audio tour.

About the Author

Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-eight novels, including Wish You Were Here, The Book of Two Ways, A Spark of Light, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, and My Sister’s Keeper, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels, Between the Lines, Off the Page and Mad Honey. Picoult lives in New Hampshire.