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Woman's Hour

Meningitis, FA's Director of Women's Football, Abortion amendments

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2026

⏱️ 59 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

According to the UK Health Security Agency, five new cases of meningitis have been confirmed in Kent. Two people have died in the outbreak. Health Secretary Wes Streeting has described it as an 'unprecedented' outbreak although the risk of the disease spreading is low. So what are the facts parents and young people should be aware of? Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, Deputy Director, Immunisations and Vaccine Preventable Diseases at the UK Health Security Agency, and GP Dr Ellie Cannon join Anita Rani.

Today, the Football Association is launching new educational resources to tackle the barriers girls face in playing football in school. Sue Day, director of women's football at the FA tells Anita how we can get more girls onto the pitch, and how she kept playing sport as a teenager.

MI5 will pay compensation and has apologised to a woman who was coercively controlled and attacked with a machete by one of its agents. The woman, who is being called Beth, made a legal claim following a BBC investigation four years ago, which showed that the man was a neo-Nazi misogynist who used his security service role as a tool of abuse. Joining Anita are Kate Ellis from the Centre for Women's Justice who represented Beth, and BBC investigations reporter Daniel de Simone.

Have you ever stopped to think about how our gardens got to be filled with so many different plants and flowers? A new exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford answers exactly that question, taking visitors across the world. Anita talks to Dr Francesca Leoni, the co-curator of In Bloom - How Plants Changed Our World.

Last year, MPs voted to decriminalise abortion for women in England and Wales, meaning a woman would no longer face prosecution for ending her own pregnancy. The amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill removes criminal liability for the woman herself, but medical professionals and others who assist an abortion outside the legal framework could still be held criminally liable. The Bill is still passing through Parliament, and according to research by the Guardian, women are still being arrested. We hear from Guardian reporter Hannah Al-Othman.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:07.0

An early start here. It's time to kick off.

0:10.0

Your day. Morning!

0:11.9

What a line-up.

0:13.3

Oh, thanks very much. We do get some great guests on the show.

0:16.1

The crowd is loving this.

0:18.3

Thanks, guys. Thank you. Too kind.

0:20.2

From morning chaos to match day commentary.

0:23.6

And everything in between. BBC sounds packed with personality.

0:28.9

Hello, I'm Neula McGovern and you're listening to The Woman's Hour podcast.

0:33.6

And while you're here, I wanted to let you know that the Woman's Hour Guide to Life is back.

0:39.4

You might have listened to some of the episodes from the first series, including ambition without burnout, or turning aging into your superpower.

0:47.8

Well, we've got six new episodes for you over the coming weeks that will give you practical tips on issues like self-promotion without

0:56.1

feeling awkward, caring for aging parents, navigating infertility with family and friends,

1:03.1

and also how to love your face, whatever your age. I'm really excited about this series of

1:10.1

The Woman's Hour Guide to Life, so I really

1:12.4

hope you'll join us. You will find the episodes in the Woman's Hour podcast feed on Sundays.

1:17.8

It's only on BBC Sounds. But now, back to today's Woman's Hour with Anita Rani.

1:25.1

Good morning and welcome to the program.

1:28.9

As you've just heard in the bulletin,

1:33.4

there are more confirmed cases of meningitis in the unprecedented outbreak.

1:37.4

And Kent will be getting you the answers to the questions you may have.

...

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