I have been watching the series. Only 5 or 6 episodes so far.
I'm not sure the one that wrote the article in the OP has watched it.
In one of the episodes we learn from a doctor that the handmaids are sent to for their check ups, is that it is the most of the men that are sterile.
But this society does not blame men, only women. So most of the wives that get handmaids are not barren, but it is the husband that is sterile.
And it is revealed that some of the wives have conspired with the doctor (who is not sterile) in secret to "do the deed" with handmaid if after a few months she has not become pregnant by the husband. Especially if the wife gets a handmaid that she likes (in other words, is compliant and obedient and makes no trouble at all.
Some may get the wrong impression from some of the talk about the show.
These handmaids are not sex slaves.
They are only used once a month when they are at their most fertile time.
There is no foreplay, no using the hands to touch one another, etc.
The wife (fully clothed) sits upright on the bed with her legs spread and the handmaid (also fully clothed) lays down beneath her with her head between the wives upper thighs, It is the wife that holds the hands of the handmaid the whole time. This is to symbolize that it is the wive the "child making" is done for.
The husband comes in (also fully clothed).
The husband unzips and lifts the handmaids skirt just enough to "do the deed".
The only skin exposed is the bare minimum to complete the deed.
The handmaid is to look at the ceiling the whole time and not make a move or a sound.
It is all very clinical with no love or desire involved at all.
Other than that time of the month, the husbands have very little dealings with the handmaids at all.
This is done claiming the biblical concept of Rachel giving her husband, Jacob, her handmaid to bear her a child.
But if the handmaid resists in any way and does not fully comply with the rules, she can be punished. Punishment runs anywhere between replacing them with another handmaid or just removing their tongue or an ear or a hand, etc. (None of those things are needed to bear children, so those parts are expendable.)