Woman's Hour

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Woman's Hour: Sterilisation in the United States, Carmen Callil, Kate Beaton, #StayAtHomeGFs, Helen Gittos & East Kent Maternity Report

Sterilisation in the United States, Carmen Callil, Kate Beaton, #StayAtHomeGFs, Helen Gittos & East Kent Maternity Report

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, Sterilisation in the United States, Carmen Callil, Kate Beaton, #StayAtHomeGFs, Helen Gittos & East Kent Maternity Report

Some US women reconsidering whether or not they want children after Roe v Wade overturned.

In the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v Wade reports suggest younger women are even considering permanent sterilisation so they can’t become pregnant again.

An independent review launched after up to 15 babies died at a hospital trust will be published later this morning. The report into maternity services at East Kent Hospitals, which is expected to be "harrowing", examined up to 200 cases involving mothers and babies. The medical experts reviewed an 11-year period from 2009 at two hospitals in Margate and Ashford. Two mothers who lost their babies at a hospital trust at the centre of a maternity scandal say they felt they were blamed for the deaths. Earlier our presenter Krupa Padhi spoke to one of those mothers Helen Gittos as she and her husband Alan, and other families, waited to be allowed to read the report.  They lost their daughter Harriet in 2014.

The cartoonist Kate Beaton has written a memoir about her time working in the oil fields of Canada aged 21 to pay off her student debt. Her memoir 'Ducks'  tells of her loneliness and vulnerability in the male-dominated space and the kindness she found there too. The dirty machinery and blasted landscapes alongside the Northern Lights inspired her as an artist and her book offers a rare insight into the lives of the people who surface our oil .

Carmen Callil, the publisher and writer who championed female writers and transformed the canon of English literature, has died of leukemia aged 84. She founded the feminist imprint Virago Press, where she published contemporary bestsellers including Margaret Atwood and Maya Angelou. She worked with writers such as Angela Carter, Alan Hollinghurst and Toni Morrison. She was also the first publisher of Hilary Mantel. We discuss her life with chair of Virago Press, Lennie Goodings, a long-term friend and former colleague of the late publisher and writer. 

Child-free women in the 20-something age bracket are sharing videos outlining what their day-to-day lives look like as #StayAtHomeGFs on TikTok. The hashtag has garnered 170 million posts and refers to one partner in a relationship whose role is to stay at home to look after their breadwinner boyfriend who goes to work and funds their lives. The content appears to be quite aspirational for many. We discuss the trend with the digital culture commentator Hannah Van de Peer and Alex Holder, a personal finance expert and author of Open Up: Why Talking About Money Will Change Your Life.

Google searches for sterilisation peaked in the US in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v Wade – and the morning after pill sold out. It’s even made some women rethink whether or not they want children, and reports suggest younger women are even considering permanent sterilisation so they can’t become pregnant again. 23-year-old Olivia from Massachusetts joins Krupa, alongside USA correspondent Holly Honderich and NHS gynaecologist Dr Larisa Corda, to chat about the implications of female sterilisation.  

Presenter: Krupa Padhi
Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Interviewed Guest: Helen Gittos
Interviewed Guest: Kate Beaton
Interviewed Guest: Lennie Goodings
Interviewed Guest: Hannah Van de Peer
Interviewed Guest: Alex Holder
Interviewed Guest: Holly Honderich
Interviewed Guest: Dr Larissa Corda

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Sterilisation in the United States, Carmen Callil, Kate Beaton, #StayAtHomeGFs, Helen Gittos & East Kent Maternity Report

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