Australia’s Top Anti-Abortion Idiot Tried to Use a Picture of Sugar Gliders to Promote her Anti-Abortion Messaging

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. In the case of Australia’s Joanna Howe, it’s also not beneath using an image of sugar gliders to personify fetuses. 

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. She accused lawmakers that didn’t support her as being part of a “Baby Killers Club,” and she was also banned from parliament for trying to bully people into passing the law. 

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.

Well, this is awkward. pic.twitter.com/XTOGNvk7L5

— Leigh Wintershoven (@winty1976) May 27, 2026

 

Per the Guardian:

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, who asked not to be named, 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 and would be aborted with its membrane”.

Embarrassing! Howe addressed the mess-up on Wednesday, tweeting, “It now appears the photo I was sent really was of sugar gliders.” She also added: “But other than making me wish I was a less trusting person, it doesn’t prove anything and it certainly doesn’t diminish the significant evil of abortion up to birth in Australia.” 

Alas, much like other anti-abortionists, Howe seems unable to see the underlying message here: Clearly, if you’re getting things this wrong, there’s probably something wrong with your original messaging.