Anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe has conceded that an image she claimed showed human foetuses may actually be sugar glider joeys, but said the error was an 'insignificant detail'. In a Facebook video on Wednesday, Howe said she appeared to have been 'scammed' by someone who emailed her with a picture she referred to as twin girls named Ruth and Emma.
Guardian Australia revealed the image was almost certainly a screenshot from a TikTok video of sugar glider joeys, not human foetuses. Howe had used the image in a social media post on 21 May and on a poster for a Sydney rally. She claimed the woman who sent the email had been 'abandoned' by doctors after a medical abortion and left to give birth alone on a bathroom floor.
In an Instagram post, Howe said critics 'hone in on these little like insignificant details when it doesn't actually matter because we know that little things like Ruth and Emma are being killed every day in this country'. She later wrote on Facebook that 'it now appears the photo I was sent really was of sugar gliders', but maintained in a video that whether the image was of sugar gliders 'doesn't actually matter'.
A person claiming to have sent the hoax email under the pseudonym 'Lynn' told Guardian Australia they wanted to test whether Howe did basic fact-checking. The emails did not mention being abandoned or giving birth on a bathroom floor. Howe continues to use the image and refer to 'twin babies Emma and Ruth' despite acknowledging the hoax.
Howe has worked with MPs to restrict abortion access and believes abortion should be banned, calling it murder. Earlier this year, authorities sought to remove another foetus image she circulated, called 'baby Samuel', but an inquiry did not identify the source.
