Adelaide Uni lecturer Dr Joanna Howe slammed over anti-abortion social media posts

Students have hit out at “extremist” anti-abortion posts shared by an Adelaide Uni associate law professor, who “does not believe abortion is justified in the case of rape”.

A University of Adelaide lecturer has come under fire for controversial anti-abortion posts shared to social media, labelling the medical procedure “legal murder” and a “human rights abuse”.

Dr Joanna Howe, an Associate Professor in Law and Associate Dean at the university’s Law School, has claimed abortion is “the leading cause of death in Australia” and “the gravest human rights abuse in Australia and our world”.

She has also shared dozens of anti-abortion images and videos to her Instagram page.

Former University of Adelaide students have raised concerns about the posts, saying they believed they were upsetting given Dr Howe’s position at the university.

But Dr Howe has defended her views, saying academic freedom was a “core tenet of the idea of a university as a place where new and old ideas can be explored”.

“It is says (sic) that ‘a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic’,” she wrote in a caption shared to Instagram.

“We must not become numb to the extraordinarily high number of lives lost through abortion. We must not turn a blind eye to the legal murder of more than 87,000 babies in our country every year.”

In a response to a comment on that post, Dr Howe said she “did not believe abortion was justified in the case of rape”.

University of Adelaide’s Associate Professor in Law, Dr Joanna Howe.

“Why should the baby receive the death penalty, which we don’t even give to the rapist,” she wrote.

In another video, Dr Howe claimed abortion was legal until birth in all Australian jurisdictions.

In most states and territories, gestation limits are imposed between 22 and 23 weeks, with the approval of two medical practitioners required for an abortion to be performed beyond that time frame.

In a post celebrating her position in media organisation InDaily’s 40 Under 40 list of 2022, Dr Howe said, “as I approach 40 I‘m ready to call out abortion as the greatest injustice in Australia today”.

Dr Howe was also an active voice in the campaign against decriminalisation of abortion in South Australia earlier this year.

A former student of Dr Howe, who wished to stay anonymous, said it made her “feel uncomfortable and unsafe” to think she was “taught by someone with such extremist views”.

“I believe it‘s inappropriate to be expressing such views on a public forum when she is in such a position of power over her students,” they said.

“Personally, when I discovered she had been expressing these views I chose not to seek help before the exam as I wanted to limit my interactions with her.”

Dr Howe has shared dozens of anti-abortion posts to social media platform Instagram. Picture: Instagram

Another of Dr Howe’s anti-abortion posts shared on Instagram.

The former student said she believed University of Adelaide law students who have had abortions could feel uncomfortable coming to Dr Howe for help or to ask questions, “let alone sitting in a lecture theatre with her”.

Another law student, now a practicing solicitor, said she was “appalled” by the videos shared by her former lecturer.

“How can (Dr Howe) stand at the lectern knowing that there may be one, or many, students before you who are faced, or have been faced, with making a decision about an unwanted pregnancy,” the student said.

“How can (she) pass judgement, shame and discrimination against this decision - which is theirs alone?

“Our current political, government and social systems are not geared to adequately support women who do want pregnancies - so where is the consideration of the human rights of the pregnant person, who should have safe and unimpeded access to seeking an abortion with dignity and respect if they chose to do so?”

Dr Howe did not directly address students’ concerns, but told The Advertiser that “all academics (had) views that are informed by their research … sometimes those views are popular, sometimes they are not.”

“Ideas around what constitutes a human rights abuse can change. Some practices that were almost universally accepted in bygone eras are now considered to be abhorrent,” Dr Howe said.

“The only way to have a hope of finding ourselves on the right side of history is to be continually examining the way we treat the vulnerable in our society in our pursuit of justice.”

A University of Adelaide spokesperson said its academic staff had freedom to disseminate and publish the results of their research and to make lawful public comment on any issue in their personal capacities.

“Freedom of speech is a right everyone holds, subject to the law,” a spokesperson said.

“The University of Adelaide provides a safe and respectful environment for all members of our community.”

The university said any staff or students requiring support could access counselling via Student Life Counselling Support and Employee Assistance Program (EAP) providers.