A bomb whose creation would tip the scales of global power.

A nuclear physicist who sought to redress the balance.

The bomb, a podcast from the BBC World Service.

These are two available now.

Hello, and thank you for downloading the Witness History podcast

from the BBC World Service with me, Laura Jones.

This week, we're bringing new stories about women's reproductive rights around the world.

This follows the US Supreme Court's ruling on Roe vs Wade,

which removes the constitutional right to abortion in America.

Today, we're going back to 1993 and post-communist Poland.

This story about a campaign for an abortion ban has its roots in communism and the collapse of it.

In 1989, the first democratic elections since the 1940s were held in Poland.

They signaled freedom in many ways for the people of the country.

The Communist Party, which has been in charge there since 1947,

has been badly beaten in the freest elections for 40 years.

Many, especially in the tiny rural towns, have voted for the first time in their lives.

The first time there's been a real choice.

In Warsaw, a group of mutants left their convent for the first time since they'd taken their vows.

Their instructions to vote and talk to nobody.

Solidarity, an independent trade union, had grown in popularity since its birth in 1980.

And its candidates' success in these elections marked the beginning of the end for communism in Poland.

And this opened up the way for religious groups to speak freely again,

...