Publication Date: March 4, 2025
For medical student Margo Drummer, saving lives is her passion. But when she finds herself in trouble with the law, can she save her own?
With the “one-hundred-day law” preventing late-term abortions in Nettles County, women’s pregnancies are strictly monitored, and any woman responsible for terminating them is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Finding herself with a positive pregnancy test, Margo is both shocked and confused-and later discovers she may have never been pregnant at all. But when her mother-in-law believes Margo aborted the baby instead, she secretly reports her to the authorities.
The story of Nettles County covers her trial, woven with humor, crimes, deceit, and power struggles relevant in today’s political unrest, especially concerning abortion rights.
A small community serves as the battleground of a state’s 100-day abortion law, creating an all-too-real mirror of today’s society.
Authors Jerry Caple, Shelly, and Jack Anderson deliver a sobering tale in Nettles County. When a woman secretly reports her daughter-in-law for allegedly terminating a pregnancy after the permitted 100-day window.
What ensues is a court case where a promising medical student finds her most intimate details analyzed and twisted to fit a specific narrative. A young couple’s marriage is interrupted on a whim, leading to tragedy and unintended consequences.
The story does have moments of humor to offset the seriousness, but it is difficult to ignore the exploitation on behalf of those seeking to benefit from being the first to test the law.
Nettles County offers a fictional narrative with an abortion law at the center and the ensuing consequences in the courtroom.
Jerry Caple grew up in International Falls, Minnesota. He is a retired organic chemistry professor. A typical snowbird, he winters in Tucson, Arizona, and summers in northern Minnesota on a lake split by the US-Canadian border. He started this book over ten years ago and, with the help of Shelly and Jack, is finally seeing it to publication. His hobbies include fishing, hiking, canoeing, and painting.
Shelly Anderson is his daughter and an attorney working for the Village of Rosemont, Illinois.
Jack Anderson is his grandson and Shelly’s son. He is their grammarian and computer expert. He set up programs so all of them could edit and read the book, and he is currently enrolled in law school.
