In a 63-6 vote, lawmakers in the Idaho House overwhelmingly passed a bill Tuesday that would require the state’s public schools to utilize a prenatal education curriculum like Live Action’s “Baby Olivia” in their classrooms.
Senate Bill 1046 was co-sponsored by state Senator Tammy Nichols and state Rep. Heather Scott. The bill will “include instruction on human growth and development” to students in grades five through 12, including “showing the development of the brain, heart, sex organs, and other vital organs in early fetal development” using “scientifically accurate materials, such as ultrasound videos and animations.”
“Baby Olivia” is a state-of-the-art animation depicting medically-accurate information about the preborn child’s life in the womb, capturing significant growth and development milestones from the moment of fertilization through birth. The groundbreaking video was approved by a panel of several doctors based on information provided by the Endowment for Human Development (EHD), a “nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health science education and public health.”
These prenatal education requirements have been implemented in public school curricula in both North Dakota and Tennessee, and numerous other states are also currently considering similar legislation for schools around the country. However, pro-abortion groups like SIECUS, Planned Parenthood, ACOG, and others have come out strongly against the prenatal education requirements, even going so far as to claim that such prenatal education could “stigmatize” abortion and “shame students,” and therefore, should not be shown in schools.
But Democratic Rep. Monica Church said she voted “yes” for the bill because of “four things that happened in committee,” one of which was the assurance that:
… the local districts have complete control over the creation or dissemination of all these videos. So if you read the bill, there are two videos. One, a high definition culture sound with developmental brain, sex organs, etc, and two, a scientifically accurate video of every stage of human development in utero.
So having complete control of those two videos means that districts will be able to find scientifically accurate videos that portray both those things.
During a committee hearing, Scott recalled being “shocked” when her niece told her that fetal development models of preborn babies were “not true” because she had learned in school that the fetus in the womb is “nothing more than a clump of cells.” Scott said that interaction inspired her to support the legislation.
“I realized that what we learn in schools, it turns into what culture becomes,” she said.
Nichols, the Senate sponsor, previously explained that the bill is meant to fill a gap in the current curriculum. “This bill introduces a structured and scientifically accurate curriculum to teach students about human biology, fetal development, and the process of pregnancy,” she said. “The program will be integrated in human biology or where discussions of contraceptive or sexually transmitted diseases are done, providing a comprehensive education on reproductive health.”
The bill passed the Idaho Senate at the end of February and next heads to the desk of Governor Brad Little for his approval. If Little signs it, it will be implemented beginning in the 2025-2026 school year.
