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28/05/2018

The Choice

BBC Radio 4 - The Untold, The Choice

Ruth Bowie returns home to Ireland to witness the results of the Irish Abortion Referendum

Ruth Bowie returns to Ireland for the Irish Abortion Referendum. She travelled to the UK to have a termination for medical reasons, but now wants women like her to have a choice.

Ruth Bowie returns home to Ireland to witness the Irish Abortion Referendum and the result of the vote up close. 

Nine years ago, she travelled to the UK to have a termination of a much-wanted baby for medical reasons. She felt guilty but she also felt abandoned by her country, where the abortion would have been illegal. Since then, she has campaigned so that other women in her position would not to have to 'travel', the euphemistic term for women who come to mainland UK like she did. She settled in England a few years later. 

Now she's about to return home to the land that she left and find out if the Irish people will vote to change the law. Tensions are high, and the result of the referendum could go either way. There are strong feelings on both sides of the debate, and the lead up to the referendum has brought this divide in Ireland to the fore.

Producer: Sara Conkey.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Factual: Life Stories

A series documenting the untold dramas of 21st-century Britain.

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