A prominent anti-abortion campaigner, who was banned from the South Australian parliament and accused of bullying, claims her employer has granted her immunity from complaints from anyone who is pro-choice.
Anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe, who has pledged to make abortion “unthinkable”, says the University of Adelaide, which employs her as a law professor, has agreed that those with ideologically opposed viewpoints to hers will be deemed “vexatious”, and any complaints they make about her will not be acted upon.
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In response to questions about her claims, the university said only that it “considers each matter on its merits in line with the university’s enterprise agreement and applicable policies and procedures”.
Howe is an expert in migration law but in recent years has been working with both state and federal politicians to try to water down women’s access to abortion.
After a debate on one bill against late-term abortion, Howe was banned from the SA parliament, with the upper house president, Terry Stephens, saying he had received complaints from MPs alleging she had used “insults and threatening and intimidating tactics”.
The then New South Wales Liberal leader, Mark Speakman, accused Howe in parliament of “brazen bullying” over proposed legislation in that state. Howe called the premier, Chris Minns, a “snowflake” after he said she had spread an “enormous amount of misinformation and lies”.
After a recent attempt to restrict access to abortion after 22 weeks and six days (which is only done in rare and health-threatening circumstances), she listed politicians who voted against the bill, which was introduced by former One Nation, now independent MP Sarah Game, as members of what she calls the “Baby Killers Club”.
State and federal MPs have told of receiving death threats and abuse from third parties after Howe used her social media accounts to criticise them.
On the day of the emotional debate in which MLCs were visibly distressed about the discussion on late-term abortion, Howe started a “fun little game” about the debate.
It was a bingo card-style fundraiser, which she says raised $7,000. The attorney general, Kyam Maher, said he would refer it to the authorities, and the department of consumer and business services, which is in charge of lottery rules, is now considering it.
In a video with her husband, furniture designer James Howe, she said it shouldn’t have been referred, before talking about taking the university to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) in 2024.
The university has conducted six investigations into complaints against Howe, and the university reportedly required her to do an anti-bias course.
She wrote that the complaints were about her abortion activism, with one relating to an allegation of plagiarism and misrepresentation of facts.
She spent $100,000 taking the university to the FWC for bullying, which went to conciliation.
Howe said she won because she did not have to do the course, while the FWC says the outcomes of conciliations are confidential.
“We agreed on a new process around complaints … and in that conciliation the university agreed that if a complaint came in from someone with an ideological position that was opposite to mine, so they were pro-abortion, then the university wouldn’t take their complaint further because it would be deemed vexatious,” Howe said.
A statement released by Howe at the time said Howe would not have to “comply with the corrective actions and that no further action will be taken in this matter”, that “the parties have agreed on a process regarding the investigation of complaints moving forward”, and that the university supports academic freedom.
Howe did not respond to questions but said on Instagram that “TikTok trolls” were trying to get her sacked, and that Guardian Australia was “writing a hit piece on behalf of these TikTok trolls” who do not understand the concept of free speech.
“[We] developed a new process to deal with vexatious complaints from ideological activists like Tory Shepherd and her ilk on TikTok,” she said.
Guardian Australia has not made a complaint to the university.
Howe said “these people” don’t think she should exist.
“I’m brown, a professor of law, I should be on their side, so they’re trying to fire me, to cancel to me, but my news to you guys is I’m not going away not matter what you do, I’m going to speak up for the babies,” she said.
It is understood multiple complaints have raised behavioural, conflict of interest and research integrity concerns since the FWC conciliation.
• This story was updated on 28 November, 2025 to clarify that Sarah Game is a former One Nation MP but now sits as an independent.
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