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James Howe, husband of anti-abortion activist and law professor Dr Joanna Howe, said on her podcast that consent is not part of their marriage. The comments sparked backlash and calls to fire the Adelaide University academic.
An Australian furniture designer has sparked outrage after saying on his wife's podcast that consent is not part of their marriage. James Howe, a father of five, made the comments on The Dr Jo Show, hosted by his wife of 17 years, Dr Joanna Howe.
James Howe Stands by Consent Claims
In the episode, which has since been removed, James Howe said that within his marriage consent is not even a thing. He said: I do not do consent. We do not do consent. He added later: I do not give a damn.
I do marriage, man. I do not do consent. Joanna Howe appeared to agree with her husband. As a successful influencer among Australia's far-right, she immediately understood the impact of his words.
She said they would clip that up online and he would sound really bad. But both James and Joanna Howe do care deeply about two issues. They care about an education model that aims to reduce Australia's appalling national rates of sexual violence. They also care about the country's abortion laws.
Joanna Howe's Anti-Abortion Activism
Over the past 18 months, Dr Joanna Howe, a law professor at Adelaide University and a Rhodes scholar, has become one of Australia's most recognisable, prolific and aggressive anti-abortion activists. Her rise reflects a broader conservative cultural zeitgeist spreading worldwide. Until recently, it felt as if conservative Christianity's renaissance was something only happening in Donald Trump's America.
Mormon women are among the most popular reality TV stars, tradwives are some of the highest-paid influencers, and the White House is stacked with self-identifying men of God. The president prefers sitting down with far-right podcasters than journalists. This has created a conservative cultural movement that has found an audience around the world, including in Australia. On her YouTube channel, Dr Howe boasts almost 50,000 subscribers, and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has appeared on her show multiple times.
On Instagram, she has over 150,000 followers, while James Howe has close to 200,000, even after a sizeable drop following his comments about consent. Joanna Howe has used her platform to attack politicians who identify as Christian but are pro-choice. She said a podcaster who spoke about her experience having a termination was celebrating her abortion. She described Chanel Contos, the woman behind the Teach us Consent and Fix our Feeds campaigns, as moronic.
One Nation and Misleading Rally Images
In the days before releasing the podcast episode which caused the furore earlier this month, Joanna Howe organised a protest in Sydney where NSW One Nation leader Mike Newman spoke. The next day, Newman told News24 he had misspoken, clarifying that One Nation seeks to ban sex-selective abortion and late-term abortion only, not abortion entirely. One Nation's federal deputy leader Barnaby Joyce also attended and spoke at another of Howe's anti-abortion rallies in June.
In the lead-up to that event, Howe circulated an image on social media of what she said were two babies named Ruth and Emma, birthed on a bathroom floor after their mother had received a medical abortion and was left alone by doctors. The image Dr Howe was circulating was almost certainly a photograph of sugar glider joeys, not human fetuses, something even she later conceded.
Despite this knowledge, she continued to use the images to promote the rally and described the misinformation as insignificant details. She posted on social media asking even if the picture of Ruth and Emma is sugar gliders, does it really even matter. As an Oxford-educated law professor, Howe of all people should appreciate factual accuracy, particularly on a topic on which she is so vocal.
What Consent Education Research Shows
In truth, global research shows consent education is effective in reducing sexual assaults, sexual harassment and unwanted pregnancies. One study also found that consent education does not lead to an increase in sexual activity, sexual risk taking, or the spread of STIs.
Abstinence education models, on the other hand, which are popular in the United States and appear to align with Howe's conservative Christian beliefs, are proven to be ineffective at reducing the number of sexual partners a person will have and the age at which they become sexually active. It is worth noting that the US also has one of the highest teenage birth rates.
When discussing the backlash to her podcast episode, which has since been removed, and growing calls for Adelaide University to fire the academic, Dr Howe told my colleague Bronte Gossling this week that what this outrage is really about is that she is leading a movement to end abortion in this country and that goes against the establishment view. That may be true.
But it is equally plausible that a lot of people are simply outraged with what James Howe said. If Joanna Howe and her supporters want to end abortion while simultaneously supporting ineffectual education models like abstinence, consent is more important than ever.
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brisbanetimes:She’s an Australian law professor. Her husband says they ‘don’t do consent’ 
theage:She’s an Australian law professor. Her husband says they ‘don’t do consent’This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Consent Comments Anti-Abortion Activism Adelaide University One Nation Podcast Backlash
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