Meet the Adelaide University professor on a mission to roll back SA’s abortion laws

One of the key architects of abortion reform legislation currently before state parliament explains her journey with the issue and when she stopped being pro-choice.

One of the key architects of abortion reform legislation currently before state parliament says she’s been on her own journey with the issue – and now aims to drive cultural change.

Dr Joanna Howe, a law professor at the University of Adelaide, helped draft a bill that would require mothers seeking abortions after 28 weeks to deliver their babies alive.

The bill was introduced to the upper house by Liberal MLC Ben Hood and will be brought to a vote on Wednesday. As of Tuesday afternoon, it was expected to fall one vote short of the 11 votes needed to pass.

Dr Howe, who is a leading expert on labour migration, is an outspoken pro-life advocate and has led several rallies in support of the bill.

In an interview with The Advertiser, she said she wanted to make the public aware of what an abortion involved.

“I want to drive cultural change and change the hearts and minds of people so that they understand what this is,” she said.

She said she was pro-choice in her early 20s before she “went on a journey” with the issue.

“I think the deeper I went, the more I felt quite concerned about it,” she said.

Dr Howe pinpointed several events that influenced her – including an Anne Summers speech arguing there is no such thing as a pro-life feminist – but said South Australian abortion reforms passed under the state Liberal government in 2021 were a turning point.

Under those changes, women can access an abortion after 22 weeks and six days if deemed medically appropriate by two doctors.

“(I felt) the only reason I wouldn’t get involved in this space is because it’s too hard and too controversial and the attacks would be too great,” she said.

“And so I felt like if someone with my security didn’t do it then who would, and I did get involved.”

Professor Joanna Howe. Picture : RoyVPhotography

After the Roe v Wade precedent on abortion was overturned in the US, Dr Howe felt the debate in Australia became overtaken by hysteria.

At the time she had only a disused Facebook account, but decided to turn to social media as means of speaking to the public directly about the issue.

Since her first post on Instagram in July 2022, she has attracted 28,000 followers, while she now has 25,000 on Facebook and is also active on TikTok.

Dr Howe, who is a mother-of-five and a Labor Party member, said there were parallels between her legal speciality and her pro-life advocacy.

“The whole thrust of my work has been around socio-economic reforms to vulnerability for working people,” she said.

“And I think we need that same approach for women but it’s cheaper to send women down this (abortion) path.”

While she is religious, she said her views on abortion are for human rights rather than faith reasons.

Originally published as Meet the Adelaide University professor on a mission to roll back SA’s abortion laws