Townsville hospital is investigating an alleged privacy breach after anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe said a \u201cwhistleblower\u201d had sent her an image containing distressing and sensitive abortion content.<\/p>\n
Howe posted a video on social media that included a picture of a 16-week-old foetus that she said was taken inside the hospital\u2019s Butterfly Room, a place for grieving parents, saying \u201cSamuel\u201d was \u201cborn alive\u201d after an abortion.<\/p>\n
No evidence was given to support that claim and Howe has been contacted for comment. Multiple health experts have previously said claims by anti-abortion activists that large numbers of babies are \u201cborn alive\u201d after abortions are misleading, including in evidence to a state and federal parliamentary inquiry<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n Howe said a Queensland<\/a> hospital worker sent the image to her.<\/p>\n Instagram blocked the automatic appearance of the image, warning that some people might find it upsetting.<\/p>\n In a second video, Howe posted specific medical information about a number of birth outcomes including the date and time, sex, birth weight, abortion medications used and any injury to the mother, taken from records inside the hospital. She blurred the names of the patients, but the information visible would be enough for them to identify themselves.<\/p>\n She named one of those born both \u201cAmira\u201d and \u201cMira\u201d. The origin of the names was unclear.<\/p>\n \u201cAnother Queensland whistleblower took this photo of the book in a Queensland hospital where births are recorded,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n The president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Dr Nisha Khot, said publicly posting such material when a family was going through something so heartbreaking was \u201cdeplorable\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is just preying on vulnerable people. This is such a vulnerable time for them and their families, they\u2019re going through something that is heartbreaking,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The chief executive of the Townsville Hospital and Health<\/a> Service, Kieran Keyes, said the service was aware of the social media posts \u201cand the serious breach of confidentiality\u201d, and was investigating.<\/p>\n \u201cWe take the privacy of our patients and staff seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Queensland\u2019s Office of the Health Ombudsman said it was aware of the social media posts and could not comment on specific cases, but that complaints would be \u201cthoroughly considered and managed\u201d in accordance with the law.<\/p>\n \u201cAllegations of privacy breaches by health service providers, particularly those involving sensitive healthcare information, are treated with the utmost seriousness,\u201d the office said.<\/p>\n \u201cQueensland public hospitals must comply with the Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011 and the Information Privacy Act 2009, and the unauthorised access, use, or disclosure of personal or sensitive information, including patient records, is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch breaches can result in significant consequences, including disciplinary action, civil penalties, or criminal prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n Access to patient information \u201cshould be strictly limited to authorised healthcare professionals and staff who require it to perform their duties,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n \u201cAny unauthorised access, sharing, or publication of such information is a clear violation of privacy laws, and relevant codes and guidelines that apply to health service providers.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement to Guardian Australia, Howe said: \u201cThe world needs to see baby Samuel\u2019s face and hear Amira\u2019s story. When we choose to look away from the victims of genocide, the violence continues.\u201d<\/p>\n Howe, a migration law professor at Adelaide University, has previously been accused of spreading misinformation<\/a> about abortion.<\/p>\n She has been banned from the South Australian parliament<\/a> for alleged \u201cinsults and threatening and intimidating tactics<\/a>\u201d during an abortion law debate.<\/p>\n She has worked with state and federal politicians<\/a> to draft laws aimed at repealing abortion rights.<\/p>\n MPs who are pro-choice say they have suffered death threats and vile abuse<\/a> from third parties after her anti-abortion campaigns. On social media Howe has labelled some of them part of \u201cThe Baby-Killers Club<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n Khot said no woman had an abortion \u201cwithout giving it a whole lot of thought and a whole lot of heartache\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s happening in the US is affecting how we have these discussions, and it is getting worse because there is so much misinformation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Howe responded in a third video to a social media follower who commented that the video of the foetus should be censored, that it was disturbing and sad, and that some people might want a trigger warning.<\/p>\n Howe said the information came from a \u201cwhistleblower\u201d exposing \u201cgenocide\u201d, and that \u201cthe world needs to see baby Samuel\u2019s face\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI know it\u2019s hard, I know some of you have been through miscarriages and stillbirths of your own, and I feel for you, but the system and the monsters who kill these babies don\u2019t want you to see this photo, and I need everybody to see it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Townsville hospital is investigating an alleged privacy breach after anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe said a \u201cwhistleblower\u201d had sent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-459511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}