All of the 'situations" in Atwood's book  have actually happened: children being abducted, women forced to become concubines, authoritarian states, torture and death to LGBT people, (and political dissidents), book burning, and so forth
As Atwood states (NYT )
"In the novel the population is shrinking due to a toxic environment, and the ability to have viable babies is at a premium. (In today’s real world, studies are now showing a sharp fertility decline in Chinese men.) Under totalitarianisms — or indeed in any sharply hierarchical society — the ruling class monopolizes valuable things, so the elite of the regime arrange to have fertile females assigned to them as Handmaids. The biblical precedent is the story of Jacob and his two wives, Rachel and Leah, and their two handmaids. One man, four women, 12 sons — but the handmaids could not claim the sons. They belonged to the respective wives.

And so the tale unfolds."

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