Image of ‘twin babies’ used by anti-abortion activist appears to show sugar gliders

A composite of two screenshots: the first from a video by TikTok user germainmaur showing two rescued baby sugar gliders (left), and the second from an X post from Joanna Howe (right). Composite: TikTok via user germainmaur/X via @ProfJoannaHowe View image in fullscreen A composite of two screenshots: the first from a video by TikTok user germainmaur showing two rescued baby sugar gliders (left), and the second from an X post from Joanna Howe (right). Composite: TikTok via user germainmaur/X via @ProfJoannaHowe Image of ‘twin babies’ used by abortion" class="entity-link entity-topic" data-entity-id="134509" data-entity-type="topic">anti-abortion activist appears to show sugar gliders Joanna Howe says the image was sent to her by a woman ashamed of her abortion, and used it to support ‘rally for Emma and Ruth’ in favour of NSW bill Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast An image posted by abortion" class="entity-link entity-topic" data-entity-id="134509" data-entity-type="topic">anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe claiming to show aborted twin girls called “Ruth and Emma” appears to be a picture of sugar gliders. The two little pink bodies are displayed on a clean white background and experts say the image does not look at all like the product of an abortion. Analysis from a digital forensics expert, commissioned by Guardian Australia, found the image was most likely a sugar glider joey (Petaurus breviceps), or possibly another marsupial such as an opossum. The digital analysis showed Howe’s image was almost certainly from a TikTok video posted in January that describes rescuing sugar gliders. It is not clear who is behind the TikTok, which was posted in January and has been seen by almost 24 million people and liked by 750,000 people. 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”. Howe is using the image to garner support for a 2 June rally in Sydney calling on the state parliament to restrict abortion access. She has announced that former Nationals leader, now One Nation MP, Barnaby Joyce will speak at the rally. Medical experts also believe the image is of marsupials. Adelaide University adjunct professor Jeremy Thompson, an expert in embryo and fetal growth and the chief scientific officer at IVF company Fertilis, said if the objects in the image were the product of abortion it appeared someone had “tidied them up” for the picture because they were lacking tissues including the sac, the placenta, and the umbilical cord. A medical specialist, who has not agreed to be named, said they were “not verified to be human, let alone females with names” and that if they were an abortion there would be blood clots and membranes. “It’s not plausible that a distressed, unsupported woman has miscarried these foetuses and then carefully washed them for photography,” she said. Howe, an expert in labour migration from Adelaide University, has worked with NSW Libertarian MP John Ruddick, and SA Fair Go MP Sarah Game (formerly of One Nation), on bills currently before those state parliaments. She has also worked with multiple other state and federal MPs on legislation that would restrict abortion access in various ways. While she often focuses on second- or third-trimester abortions, she recently revealed that her ultimate goal was to have all abortion criminalised. “We want to end abortion,” she said in a debate with Abolish abortion Australia in April. “We believe abortion is murder and we believe that everybody involved in the process of murder should face criminal penalties. I mean, that’s what you should do when you’ve murdered someone.” Howe has been banned from SA parliament after alleged “threatening and intimidating tactics” but denied doing anything wrong and said she would challenge the ban. She has also been accused of “grift” for creating a Bingo-style game to raise money during an emotional abortion debate; accused of spreading misinformation; and she has previously posted an image from inside a Townsville hospital of what she said was an aborted foetus, sparking an alleged privacy breach investigation by the hospital. The Townsville inquiry concluded without finding who sent her the pictures. In a tearful video posted to social media last week, Howe said she received an email titled “my shameful abortion” with a “picture of two babies”. She said the woman who emailed her was “abandoned” after a medical abortion and was “alone in her house, in her bathroom, giving birth to her twin babies on to the bathroom floor”. The email prompted her to rename a planned Rally for Life in Sydney on 2 June to “the rally for Emma and Ruth”, “two little twin girls who never got to live”. “We can’t sit idly by. I can’t end this alone. I need you guys,” she said. The bill before the SA parliament would ban abortions after 25 weeks no matter the severity of foetal abnormalities or the risk to the pregnant person’s physical or mental wellbeing. It would only be allowed to save the pregnant person’s life. In NSW the bill would outlaw sex-selective abortions. A bill in Queensland has sought to restrict access to medical abortion. The president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Nisha Khot, said such tactics were ways of “chipping away at abortion rights”. “If you can’t do it one way, you do it another,” she said. The SA abortion Action Coalition said this “incrementalism” undermined access to abortion care, rejected evidence-based health care, and eroded the decriminalisation of abortion. MPs have described death threats and abuse from third parties in the wake of Howe’s campaigns. The focus on second- or third-trimester abortions, which are rare and “heartbreaking”, is “preying on vulnerable people”, Khot said. Khot said the “absolutely horrible tactic” of using images that are purportedly of abortions would “tug at people’s emotions”, but that the fact was that abortion is healthcare. Howe told Guardian Australia she received two emails from a woman whose name she would keep private. The first had the photo, and in the second the woman said she had had the abortion, and “something big came out”. Howe did not respond to questions about the veracity of the photo. A spokesperson for Ruddick said he was aware of Howe’s position, and that there was no libertarian position on abortion as “opinions vary” and it was a matter of individual conscience. “Libertarians believe murder should be illegal and some libertarians believe life begins at conception. John is pro-life,” the spokesperson said. Explore more on these topics abortion New South Wales Barnaby Joyce Health Women news Share Reuse this content