Flinders Uni academic says she feels ‘unsafe’ after Dr Joanna Howe’s ‘Baby Killers Club’ Instagram blast
The law professor is facing demands to delete a social media post that included a slideshow of seven high-profile women she’s labelled a “Baby Killers Club”.
SA News
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The ugly aftermath of the failed attempt to overhaul abortion laws now includes social media posts naming opponents of the changes the “Baby Killers Club” – which has one academic now saying she fears for her safety.
Prof Howe, a University of Adelaide law professor, helped draft a bill that would have required mothers seeking abortions after 28 weeks to deliver their babies alive.
It was defeated in the Upper House, 10 votes to 9, amid nasty claims of duplicity.
Dr Howe has since taken to Instagram to carry on the fight, putting up a so-called Baby Killers Club gallery of seven prominent women who opposed the bill.
Dr Howe says the women “in my new series Baby Killers Club are the people who have come out publicly in favour of lethally injecting viable babies in their third trimester, so babies after 28 weeks and up until birth, with potassium chloride which burns their heart.
“These babies are induced stillborn.”
Dr Howe’s post says the women named were opposed to a bill that skipped the lethal injection and allowed the babies to be delivered alive.
“What they were fighting for is the right to kill the baby. I’d say the name Baby Killers Club is pretty apt,” she says.
Prof Howe told The Advertiser she would “name and shame” more people by adding them to the list.
Of the women named so far, Flinders University Associate Professor Barbara Baird said she found it “very disturbing”.
“The potentially defamatory aspect of it is of less concern to me than its incitement of hatred,” she said.
“I am now concerned for my own safety given how social media can incite people.”
Liberal MLC Michelle Lensink, also on the list, said: “Joanna Howe needs to accept that the majority of South Australian women do not agree with her. Stooping to uncivilised behaviour will not change anyone’s opinion.”
State ministers Susan Close and Katrine Hildyard declined to comment, Greens MLC Tammy Franks, health consultant Katina D’Onise and former Liberal MP Vickie Chapman have been approached for comment.
The issue also has ignited a brawl between pro-life Professor Joanna Howe and Guardian journalist Tory Shepherd, with insults flying over Ms Shepherd’s coverage of the issue.
Ms Howe accuses Ms Shepherd of ignoring her responses to questions, understood to date to an incident in 2022.
“Tory Shepherd, a pro abortion activist, pretending to be a journalist, wrote a hit piece on me,” Dr Howe writes.
“She asked me some questions. I replied. She then wrote the hit piece pretending she never even got my email.
A Guardian Australia spokesman said: “Ms Howe has been asked to remove her Instagram post as it is offensive and defamatory of Ms Shepherd, a highly respected and ethical senior journalist.”
Originally published as Flinders Uni academic says she feels ‘unsafe’ after Dr Joanna Howe’s ‘Baby Killers Club’ Instagram blast
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