Lawmakers in the Iowa House voted 59-35 Wednesday to show a fetal development video, like Live Action’s ‘Baby Olivia,’ to students in public middle and high schools.
HF2617 requires human growth and development and health classes in seventh grade through high school to be shown either ‘Baby Olivia’ or a similar video.
‘Baby Olivia’ uses groundbreaking animation to depict medically-accurate information about life in the womb from the moment of fertilization all the way until birth. The video allows students to understand that human development starts well before birth, as it notes significant markers in the preborn child’s growth and development for every week of pregnancy, such as the baby’s heart, brain, and lungs.
“The bill ensures the teaching to our children of basic facts about human development in a very approachable way,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Anne Osmundson, R-Volga. “This is scientific information. This is teaching basic biology to our children. And it helps to answer one of life’s biggest questions: where did I come from?”
Despite its foundation in scientific fact, the video is facing pushback from pro-abortion lawmakers and some media outlets, who are trying to pass it off as propaganda. Yet the video uses medically accurate information taken directly from the Endowment for Human Development (EHD), which describes itself as “a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health science education and public health.” The EHD maintains a position of neutrality, which it says “prohibits our organization from taking public policy positions on controversial bioethical issues.” The video has also been endorsed by a panel of medical experts, including Dr. David Bolender, PhD, Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy, Medical College of Wisconsin; Dr. Donna Harrison of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists; Michelle Cretella, MD, Executive Director of the American College of Pediatricians; and Jeffrey Barrows, DO, MA, Senior VP Bioethics and Public Policy for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations.
“This video is an accurate and vivid portrayal of the intrauterine development of the baby,” said Dr. Jeffery Barrows, DO, MA of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations. “If I were still practicing obstetrics, I would be showing this to all of my pregnant patients.”
Similar legislation was signed into law last year in North Dakota, while earlier this week lawmakers in the West Virginia Senate approved their own version of a ‘Baby Olivia’ bill.
