Joanna Howe, one of Australia’s best-known anti-abortion advocates, is taking legal action against her employer after claiming more than 200 complaints have been lodged over her public views.
Dr Howe, a Professor of Law at Adelaide University, has won backing from several prominent political figures during her campaigning against abortion.
However, she says her academic career is now “on the brink” and has accused the university of breaching both her employment contract and the Fair Work Act.
According to court documents obtained by The Advertiser, Dr Howe was told in November last year that the university had begun a formal investigation into her advocacy after receiving a complaint from an external party.
She said the number of “allegations and sub-allegations” had risen above 200, relating to comments she made about abortion, Islam and what she described as “gender ideology”.
“Every single allegation relates to something I have said on a controversial topic, nothing relates to my research and nothing to my teaching,” she told The Advertiser.
Dr Howe said returning to Adelaide Law School had become increasingly difficult. She has not been on campus since February and claimed colleagues had greeted her with “stony faces”.
She also alleged that one colleague came out of a bathroom and “literally screamed in my face”.
Dr Howe alleges the university breached her employment contract and says the backlash over her views has taken a significant personal toll
Adelaide University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Joanne Fox said the institution was taking the matter “very seriously”
Dr Howe said she had considered “resigning quietly” and starting a new chapter elsewhere.
“I worked so hard to get to the top of my career, only to be on the brink of losing it because I had the wrong opinion,” she said.
She argues that academic freedom and free speech protections apply to her case and has vowed to take the dispute to the High Court if necessary.
“In my enterprise agreement and under federal law, I have a right to academic freedom and free speech,” she said.
The Daily Mail has contacted the university for comment.
Adelaide University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Joanne Fox told The Advertiser that the institution was treating the matter “very seriously”.
“The University has not been provided with any court documents and is unable to comment,” she said.
The latest legal action follows an earlier dispute between Dr Howe and the university in 2024, when she appealed to the Fair Work Commission over workplace measures imposed on her despite having been cleared in six investigations.
Dr Howe maintains her rights to academic freedom and free speech are protected by law and has vowed to take her fight to the High Court
The university later accepted the commission’s recommendation that Dr Howe should no longer be required to comply with those measures and that no further action would be taken.
CONTINUE READING: Florida Woman, 36, Dies in Fall While Photographing Dolomites
Dr Howe was in the spotlight in September after her husband, James Howe, criticised consent educator Chanel Contos and the government’s $3.5million funding for her organisation, Teach Us Consent, in a video posted to social media.
In the video, the couple questioned Ms Contos’s approach to consent education and her influence on government policy.
Mr Howe called the 27-year-old a ‘freak’ and a ‘disgusting person’ while mocking her push for children to learn to seek permission before kissing someone or removing their clothes.
‘Are you off your rocker? Are you out of your mind?’ Mr Howe said.
‘Giving this chick, this teenager, control of censorship on social media and brainwashing children in schools.’
In the same video, Dr Howe accused Ms Contos of exaggerating the threat of sexual violence and argued men were not necessarily the ones to blame.
‘She makes it sound like men are just like just waiting to rape you,’ Dr Howe said.
Dr Joanna Howe and her husband James sparked backlash after criticising consent educator Chanel Contos and $3.5 million in government funding for her organisation, Teach Us Consent
‘But if you get really drunk and you go into dark spaces and where you’re alone and you don’t know the man very well because you like met him on Tinder…’
Mr Howe interrupted and declared that consent was not something he believed he needed.
‘Yeah, consent is not even a freaking thing… Like for me… I just don’t, I don’t do consent. I don’t, like, we don’t do consent,’ he said.
Before he could go any further, his wife warned him that someone could edit their video to make him ‘sound really bad’.
Mr Howe continued, saying: ‘I don’t give a s**t… I don’t…I do marriage, man. Like I don’t I don’t do consent.
‘Consent is not the answer. It’s just another fake solution waiting to fail.’
The Daily Mail contacted Mr Howe at the time for comment.
The remarks sparked backlash, prompting Adelaide University Vice-Chancellor Nicola Phillips to issue a statement saying the university was ‘aware of all of the recent commentary regarding consent’.
She then added that the university did not comment on ‘individual staff matters’.
The couple have five children and Mr Howe has increasingly appeared alongside his wife in videos discussing abortion, politics and social issues.
Dr Howe holds a doctorate in law from the University of Oxford and joined the University of Adelaide as a lecturer in 2012. She became a full-time law professor in 2023.