In an effort to get the new American health care act passed, Trump tried to appease the hardline Freedom Caucus members by removing 'maternal health care' as one of the essential things to be covered. The new act, if passed, would also have defunded Planned Parenthood for a year (at least). A picture of the meeting where stripping maternal health care out of the act was approved showed some two dozen people, all men, making that decision.

Then there are all the states where measures are being taken to restrict abortion access, and companies opting out of having health care benefits cover contraceptives because of religious reasons, and many instances of women going to their local pharmacy for the 'morning after' pill and being told by the pharmacist that they will not dispense it because it goes against their religious beliefs.

So an obvious connection between the novel and America today is women being told what they can and cannot do with their own bodies.