Gamete Diploidy Syndrome aka Human Communicable Parthenogenesis aka Human Asexual Reproductive Syndrome has just been identified – triggered by a sexually transmitted disease, it causes women to become pregnant without any external (or internal as it were) assistance.
An overenthusiastic Texan preacher has taken steps to prevent some of his flock catching the condition – surgery on four sisters, the youngest only two. There girl’s mother had caught it and the daughters were the result of it, and the story focusses on, rather than the religious/political/societal issues (although these are covered), a young reporter, herself pregnant by her samesex partner, who wants/needs to track down the mother for the story of the decade.
It’s a lengthy story, seen through the journos eyes with some limited infodumping and article text insertion, with the narrative strings tied off quickly in the closing couple of pages, with the really big societal issues left for the novel that is in progress that takes place 20 years after this story.
