Misrepresentations are used to advance anti-abortion efforts through junk science, misleading language, and legal tactics. Joanna Howe promoted anti-abortion messaging by posting fetus images and labeling abortion as “legal murder.” She helped design a failed 2024 policy that would have required women seeking abortions after 27 weeks and six days to give birth. She also used inflammatory rhetoric toward lawmakers. Recently, she shared a pink poster with “two fetuses” named Emma and Ruth and a claim that they resulted from a birth onto a sanitary pad after abortion pills. Digital forensics analysis found an extremely low chance the image showed human embryos, citing traits characteristic of marsupials rather than humans, and experts agreed it was likely a sugar glider.
"Misrepresentations and falsehoods are no strangers to the anti-abortion movement, which we've seen-time and time again-frame junk science to try and ban the abortion pill, use misleading language to sow unnecessary doubt; and twist laws to make unlawful arrests."
"Howe, one of Australia's most loud and proud medical fascists, has been perennially obsessed with posting pictures of fetuses on social media to propel anti-abortion messaging-something she refers to as "legal murder." Howe also helped architect a failed anti-abortion policy in 2024, which would have made women seeking abortions after 27 weeks and six days to instead be forced to give birth, either keeping the baby or giving it up for adoption."
"Last week, however, Howe published a pink poster featuring an image of "two fetuses" she nicknames Emma and Ruth, alongside a bogus story saying they were the product of a birth "onto a sanitary pad," after a woman was prescribed abortion pills... though a digital forensics analyst that spoke to the Guardian said the image was probably a sugar glider-if not another marsupial."
"There was an "extremely low" chance that the image was of human embryos, the analysis found, as the shape, head proportion, and other traits were "characteristic of marsupials, not humans". A wildlife veterinarian and glider expert agreed the picture was probably a sugar glider, and that a human embryo would have a different leg and head shape, and "at that stage would have an obvious umbilical cord a"
Read at Jezebel
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]