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Woman's Hour

Royal state visit to US and Epstein survivors, Abortion law, Plastic waste art

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

King Charles and Queen Camilla are on their four-day state visit to the United States. Today King Charles will address the US Congress. But at the same time, survivors of the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and the family of one of his most prominent victims, Virginia Giuffre, have urged the King to meet them during his state visit. A round table featuring Epstein survivors is planned ahead of his meeting to Congress. Joining Chloe Tilley is India McTaggart, royal correspondent for the Telegraph.

This week, a significant change to abortion law in England and Wales is expected to receive Royal Assent - meaning it will become law. An amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill will remove criminal liability for women who end their own pregnancies. But while supporters of the bill believe this is about preventing vulnerable women from being prosecuted, critics argue that it risks reducing safeguards and say the change hasn’t had sufficient scrutiny. We hear from Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi and historian Dr Jessica Cox from Brunel University.

Millions of Indians have been voting in elections across five states in a set of contests. We'll look at why the number of female voters in India has significantly increased in the last few decades - outnumbering male voters in the last general election - and how the female vote is changing politics in India.

Single-use plastic waste was found on 97% of the beaches surveyed by the Marine Conservation Society in the UK and Channel Islands last year. But one woman who's passionate about changing that is Sammie Aplin. Sammie, who is known online as The Plastic Coast, is a nurse who spends her spare time combing beaches, searching for plastic waste which she uses to create colourful artwork. She joins Chloe to share why she wanted to do something about it.

Presenter: Chloe Tilley Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.

0:07.0

If you need help on money matters, you're not alone.

0:10.4

In the Martin Lewis podcast, I'll give you tips to keep more cash in your pocket

0:13.9

and answer your important questions.

0:16.7

Now that we're starting from scratch, what is the best way for us to move forward?

0:21.2

To help your everyday finances just add up. Let's see what we can do. The Martin Lewis podcast,

0:27.8

listen on BBC Sounds. Hello, this is Chloe Tilly and you're listening to The Woman's Hour podcast.

0:34.6

Good morning and welcome to the programme. Now, it's been seen as one of the most

0:38.7

challenging state visits on the first full day of King Charles and Queen Camilla's visit to the US.

0:45.1

The king will address Congress, but in amongst the focus on the strains and the special

0:49.2

relationship, survivors of Geoffrey Epstein are unhappy that they won't get to meet the king.

0:55.3

Survivors are urging him to do the right thing.

0:58.3

Buckingham Palace says a meeting won't happen because of concerns about jeopardising the legal processes.

1:03.7

We're going to look at the potential for this to overshadow the state visit.

1:07.9

Also, the Labour MP who has been pushing for a change in the law so women aren't

1:12.1

criminalised for ending their own pregnancies in England and Wales is expecting to see it

1:16.8

happen this week. Tanya Antonazi has spoken about her own experience of abortion and how that's

1:23.2

influenced her thinking. But critics argue there aren't enough safeguards in place. She's going to join us,

1:29.1

along with Dr Jessica Cox, who will place this moment into some historical context for us.

1:35.1

Plus, millions of people living in five states in India are voting in elections and amongst them a huge

1:41.2

and growing number of women. We're getting to look at what's driving their participation

1:45.8

and whether political parties giving cash handouts to women

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