BoTW: Unwind

Unwind by Neal Shusterman is a book about a grim alternative future for the United States. Pro-choice and pro-life forces arm themselves and fight a civil war over the issue of abortion. Neither side wins the war, but instead compromises with a new amendment to the Constitution: The Bill of Life. As part of its tenets, the Bill states the following:

• Human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen.
• However, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a parent may choose to retroactively "abort" a child . . . on the condition that the child's life doesn't "technically end.
• The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called "unwinding."
• Unwinding is now a common, and accepted practice in society.

The story begins when the main character, Connor, finds out accidentally that his parents plan to have him unwound. Knowing full well that will kill him, Connor runs away. He's quickly caught (his cellphone gives him away) but then escapes again. A fugitive from the government, Conner teams up with two other "Unwinds," attempting to stay out of sight until the day they turn eighteen and by law cannot be unwound.

Unwind is a 2009 Lone Star book and can be found in the new arrival shelf.