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A petition pressuring Adelaide University to fire leading pro-life advocate and law professor Dr Joanna Howe has resurfaced.

News Corps’ The Advertiser gave the 21 May Change.org page oxygen in a piece published on Monday.

Howe replied online by describing the attack on her professional life as “vultures circling.”

“It’s not enough that they’ve destroyed my husband’s career and reputation on the false allegation that he’s a r*pist and a p*do,” Howe said.

“Now they’re coming for me. These people are vile.”

Warning: coarse language.

Petition Targets Pro-Life Academic

The petition, which has 5,000 signatures, was started by a user simply known as A E.

They are calling on Adelaide University to fire Howe over her tone and pro-life advocacy.

Accusing Howe of “disturbing behaviour unbecoming of an academic”, the user claims the Rhodes scholar is a “significant, harmful” threat to the university’s integrity.

As such, the petition wants the university to “take immediate action” against her.

This, the petitioner alleged, will save the University’s “reputation and moral standing.”

Specifically, they accused Howe of spreading misinformation, harassment, abuse, doxxing opponents and fostering a “toxic environment.”

That list extends into accusations of violating “basic principles of human rights, inciting individuals to break the law, and sharing illegal information.”

Without providing evidence to justify the claims, the petition also condemned Howe for “undermining Australia’s legal framework and setting a worrying precedent for law students.”

Going even further, the petition accuses Howe of discrimination, stating that,

“While she is an expert in migration, Professor Howe has made alarming comments that are anti-multiculturalism, racist, and [so-called] Islamophobic.”

They then effectively claimed Howe’s words were harming globalism because they are “deeply damaging in a world that is becoming increasingly interconnected.”

The petition ends with Adelaide University being “urged to take decisive action by removing Howe from her position.”

James Howe Fights Back Against Media Claims

Outside Dr Joanna Howe’s brief criticism of the Adelaide University petition on YouTube and X, neither Howe nor her husband James has responded to the claims.

The couple, who have been married for 17 years and share five kids, are, however, answering legacy media’s slanderous spin.

They’re suing some news organisations and “several social media influencers” for falsely accusing James of advocating marital rape and pedophilia during Episode 273 of the Dr Jo Show podcast.

He was, in fact, criticising comments made by Chanel Contos about consent and the Digital Duty of Care censorship push from the Albanese government.

Contos told The Imperfects in 2025 that Australian schools should be teaching kids consent like “Can I take your top off? Can I kiss you? Can I touch you here?”

“I think those conversations,” she asserted, “need to be explicitly said in classrooms to give children language to be able to use.”

Contos also wants “porn literacy” taught in Australian schools.

Described by Howe as the RADICAL Feminist Behind Albanese’s Social Media Crackdown, Contos is a “sexual consent” activist with a Master’s in Education, Gender and International Development.

Her “Teach us Consent” platform pushed for and already helped insert compulsory consent sex education into the curriculum from kindergarten onwards.

Answering the “media pile-on” about his Contos criticisms, James explained, “we basically said, ‘we don’t do consent.’”

Which, he added, “sounds bad if you don’t listen to the whole 5-minute segment.”

In the segment, James mocks a system that forces adult educators to teach sexual consent education to kindergarten kids.

“Consent is not even a thing,” he said, adding, “I do marriage.”

Referring to Contos saying “we need to teach children” consent, James shared concerns for teachers having to talk about sex to six-year-olds.

Such as, “Do you consent for me to take off your top, little girl?”

Agreeing, Joanna replied, “It’s creepy.”

Contos is a freak, James remarked.

“It’s what these feminists have always done,” he commented.

Mocking “free love,” he added, “They’re like, ‘Free Love’. It’s so amazing. We can have sex with whoever we want.”

“Oh, you’re getting pregnant. Oh crap. Well, that didn’t work well. Here, let’s take the pill.”

With sarcasm, James quipped, “Yay! ‘Free love.’ Oh, we’ve all got diseases. That’s not working. Here, here’s a condom. All right. That’s fixed. Ah, ‘free love.’”

Now “we’re all getting pregnant. Oh, that’s all right. You know, you got the pill, but it’s not working. Here, have abortions.”

“Next minute, like 100 million babies worldwide are getting aborted.”

Slamming the dissonance between celebrating “free love,” confusing pressure with rape and actual sexual violence, James said,

“Even if it’s not rape, just feeling that way because we’re pressured into whatever. Oh, now we need consent in schools.”

“None of it,” he concluded, “works.”

This is why Contos, who is Albanese’s Consent ambassador, has nothing to teach him, said James.

“She does not have the answers. Consent is not the answer. It’s just another fake solution waiting to fail.”

At which point, James asked, “Do you just admit that the whole ‘free love’ thing hasn’t worked?”

“It hasn’t. It just leads to a trail of dead babies and broken lives.”

To this, Joanna added, “The construct is marriage.” Choose to marry wisely. Look at the person’s character.

“Then you don’t need to talk about consent because you have a good marriage.”

Marriage, they both agreed, “is the only consent that works.”

Ignoring all of this, the largely left-wing Australian mainstream media leapt before it looked.

Their false narrative hit James’s business hard.

Couple Seeks Support as Legal Battle Continues

Starting his own Give Send Go petition, James asked people to help him sue those involved, saying,

“The claims were circulated to millions of viewers online and in the media, and instantly decimated the furniture design and architectural commentary career I’ve spent 11 years building in the Australian design industry.”

“These falsehoods were wilfully propagated by ideological opponents of mine because I support my wife Dr Joanna Howe in her prolife work.”

He’s suing for loss of income as a designer, citing responsibilities as a husband and father.

As of 22 September, 924 people had given $84,000 towards a $100,000 goal.

Consider praying for Joanna and James.

Call upon your church to do the same.

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