Anti-abortion activist concedes pictures of human foetuses may have been sugar glider joeys

An anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe said she may have promoted a scam email that included an image she described as human foetuses. She said the email claimed to provide details about a medical abortion and included a picture she referred to as twin babies named Ruth and Emma. She previously posted the image on social media and on a poster promoting a rally in Sydney. She claimed doctors abandoned a woman after a medical abortion and that she gave birth to twins on a bathroom floor. Reporting found the image was very unlikely to be human embryos and was almost certainly sugar glider joeys from a TikTok screenshot. Howe later said the photo appeared to be sugar gliders but argued the specific image did not matter because she believed similar deaths occur daily.

"Howe said it appeared she had been scammed when someone emailed her claiming to give details about their medical abortion, including an image that Howe referred to as twin girls she called Ruth and Emma. Howe had previously posted a video on social media on 21 May about the email and the picture, which she also added to a poster promoting a rally in Sydney next week. She said in the video doctors had abandoned the woman after giving her a medical abortion, that she was left alone, in her bathroom, giving birth to her twin babies on to the bathroom floor."

"Guardian Australia revealed on Wednesday that the image was very unlikely to be of human foetuses, and was almost certainly a screenshot of sugar glider joeys taken from a TikTok video. Howe said in an Instagram post on Wednesday critics hone [sic] 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. Even if the picture of Ruth and Emma is sugar gliders, like, does it really even fucking matter? she said in the post."

"Later on Wednesday, she wrote on Facebook that it now appears the photo I was sent really was of sugar gliders. But in a video she said whether Ruth and Emma were sugar gliders doesn't actually matter. Because there are thousands of Ruth and Emmas, she said. We rally for them. Guardian Australia did not know who was behind the email before publication of Wednesday's story. Digital analysis and expert advice led to the conclusion there was an extremely low chance the image was of human embryos and that it was very likely to be of sugar gliders, or possibly some other"

Read at www.theguardian.com