Pro-life professor wins case against Australian university

A professor at the University of Adelaide in Australia has won a case against the university which she alleges attempted to silence her about her pro-life viewpoints and bring an end to her pro-life research.

Joanna Howe is an Associate Professor of Law and a former NSW Rhodes Scholar, who, while vocal online about her pro-life beliefs, said she does not speak about the issue of abortion in the classroom. “I have never talked about abortion in my lectures as I do not teach a subject in which this would be relevant,” she said in a previous interview with Live Action News.

One anonymous student attacked Howe, saying her pro-life views were “extremist” and made the student feel “uncomfortable and unsafe” in The Advertiser. After Howe pushed back against those claims, which she called defamatory, another student came forward with similar allegations. Other students spoke out in her defense, though the worst was to come from the university itself.

Howe filed a bullying petition, saying that the university unfairly investigated her based on complaints due to her pro-life research. Despite one investigation confirming that she did not breach the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, she was still asked to attend a “research integrity course,” which she refused. Since 2019, Howe was the subject of six investigations.

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So Howe asked the Fair Work Commission to take action… and she won.

“I’m delighted to have this strong victory for academic freedom. It has been an incredibly gruelling fight to get here but it has been worth it because I have achieved everything I wanted to through this case,” she said, according to Catholic Weekly. “The university has removed the corrective actions imposed on me and agreed to a process going forward that will protect my academic freedom and protect me from vexatious complaints. I am relieved to have this particular chapter closed and I’m looking forward to being able to research and advocate on abortion going forward.”

Though she was victorious in having the corrective actions against her lifted, it came at an enormous cost: months of her life fighting the university, over $100,000 in legal fees, and immense stress. But she plans to keep fighting, campaigning for federal free speech protections to be put into place, saying, “I don’t think any Australian should face punitive consequences for saying what they think on an issue like abortion, and we should have robust protections to ensure free speech is encouraged and facilitated.”

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