Sex ed ‘leader’ slams prenatal development education because it can ‘stigmatize’ abortion

SIECUS, an acronym which stands for “The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States,” (also known as SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change) is now coming out strongly against Live Action’s “Meet Baby Olivia” video, which uses state-of-the-art animation to accurately highlight prenatal development milestones from the moment of fertilization up to birth.

This organization has been at the center of promoting “comprehensive sex education” for decades, yet its name is not as commonly known as that of Planned Parenthood.

AT A GLANCE:

• SIECUS, which “advances sex education through advocacy, policy and coalition building” and collaborates with multiple pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood, views sex-ed as a “vehicle for social change” to promote abortion.
• SIECUS, founded by a former Planned Parenthood medical director, “believes that sexually explicit visual, printed, or on-line materials can be valuable educational or personal aids when sensitively used in a manner appropriate to the viewer’s age and developmental level.”
• The organization’s 2025 State of Sex Education Legislative Look Ahead report referred to “Baby Olivia” as the “greatest potential for harm, especially in a post-Dobbs America,” because it would require students to be shown “stigmatizing and medically inaccurate fetal ultrasound videos as part of their sex education.”
• SIECUS refers to showing students ultrasounds of prenatal development and other such videos as “anti-abortion disinformation” paired with “medically inaccurate fetal development lessons and forced ultrasound videos.” It falsely claims Live Action’s “Baby Olivia” video has been “discredited.”
• SIECUS says showing ultrasound videos and prenatal videos like “Olivia” “distort[s] reproductive health care,” “reinforce[s] abortion stigma,” and blocks students from receiving sex education, adding that it is “disinformation designed to shame students, confuse science, and deny young people the tools they need to make informed decisions about their health, their bodies, and their futures.”

SIECUS claims the following education efforts:

• Enhance educator, advocate, parent, youth, clinician, partner, and public understanding of the current state of sexuality education in the United States and opportunities for improvement in both policy and practice.
• Publish toolkits and reports to inform and educate various constituencies on comprehensive sexuality education and quality sexual and reproductive health services.
• Partner with national, state, and local organizations to promote standards elevating the provision of quality sexuality education.
• Provide training and technical assistance to stakeholders on how to use resources to improve sexuality education implementation, evaluation, and policy development.

While these objectives sound innocuous, in reality, SIECUS fully approves of the perverse ‘work‘ of Alfred Kinsey — who utilized convicted pedophiles for his ‘research’ — yet SIECUS’ founding eight years after Kinsey’s death was allegedly “not connected to the Kinsey Institute.”

In its 50th Anniversary video, SIECUS applauded all sexual identities, including LGBTQ, transgender, bisexual, or “everything.”

 

ATTACKING BABY OLIVIA

SIECUS has created the “Baby Olivia and Anti-Abortion Indoctrination Bill Tracker” to track legislation that requires age-appropriate prenatal development education in schools, including detailed ultrasound videos, which may additionally include Live Action’s “Baby Olivia” video. So far, these bills have been introduced and/or enacted in 20 states.

SIECUS is clearly so disturbed at the idea of students viewing ultrasounds of prenatal development that it refers to them in an online petition as “anti-abortion disinformation… medically inaccurate fetal development lessons and forced ultrasound videos,” and refers to the “Baby Olivia” video as “discredited.” These are claims unsupported by evidence.

SIECUS also claims that the reported 33 introduced bills are “part of a nationwide, coordinated effort to distort reproductive health care, reinforce abortion stigma, and block young people from receiving the comprehensive, inclusive, and science-backed sex education they deserve.” SIECUS recorded nearly $5 million in net assets in 2022.

SIECUS does not elaborate as to how adding prenatal development education — including actual ultrasound footage of developing human beings — “distort[s] reproductive health care,” “reinforce[s] abortion stigma,” or blocks any student from receiving sex education. However, as Live Action News previously reported, some have stated why they truly oppose such education.

Last April, USA Today columnist Sara Pequeño claimed that “Baby Olivia” was “just another attack on abortion access meant to further stigmatize the [abortion] procedure and the patients who choose it while doing nothing to help spread useful information or actually help families,” adding that “the video is designed in a way to make teenagers feel guilty for something they should not feel guilty about.” She later stated that the video’s purpose “is to dissuade viewers from choosing an option that is already heavily stigmatized. That will only hurt students.”

The “Baby Olivia” video does not discuss abortion, and is already being used in schools across the nation to educate students about the growth and development of human beings in the womb.

 

The pro-abortion sex-ed organization is hosting held a webinar on March 19, 2025 to rally its supporters against Baby Olivia and “expose the growing push to mandate fetal development lessons and ultrasound videos in schools” and combat what they describe as a “deceptive tactic designed to embed anti-abortion ideology under the guise of education.”

The webinar will be facilitated by Michelle Slaybaugh of SIECUS and will feature Mazie Stillwell of Planned Parenthood North Central States (who has called the video “propaganda” because it counts weeks of prenatal development according to fertilization instead of by “gestational” age, which adds two weeks), Erin Matson of ReproAction, Katherine Christensen of Planned Parenthood North Central States, and Alison Macklin of SIECUS.

The “Fetal Development & Ultrasound Bills: The New Front in the War on Sex Education” invites supporters to “Join ReproAction, Planned Parenthood North Dakota, Planned Parenthood Iowa, and SIECUS for a critical conversation on how misinformation is being weaponized in sex education,” SIECUS states online.

As previously noted, SIECUS falsely claims that “Live Action’s ‘Meet Baby Olivia’ video is not medically accurate,” adding that “The video promotes false claims that have been debunked by health experts, such as fetal hiccups starting at seven weeks — a timeline that reputable medical organizations confirm is impossible.”

In fact, as the “Baby Olivia” video presents prenatal development from fertilization, seven weeks would equate to nine weeks gestation. This medically-authored and reviewed article as well as information from the Endowment for Human Development (EHD), both state that hiccups begin in the seventh week after fertilization.

The video below from EHD shows hiccups through embryoscopy, at about seven weeks after fertilization (nine weeks gestation). Multiple online medical articles state that while mothers do not begin to sense a preborn child’s hiccups until later in pregnancy, hiccups have been detected in the first trimester by ultrasound:

 

But SIECUS claims, “This isn’t education. It’s disinformation designed to shame students, confuse science, and deny young people the tools they need to make informed decisions about their health, their bodies, and their futures.”

Truly, these statements sound equally as desperate as the claim made by a pro-abortion politician in 2022 that a prenatal heartbeat detected by ultrasound is “a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body.”

SIECUS claims it will “not stand by while anti-abortion extremists attempt to hijack classrooms to spread dangerous lies.”

A prenatal sonogram doesn’t lie. SIECUS and its friends in the abortion industry are so desperate to hide the truth from women that they have long attempted to portray a prenatal ultrasound scan as akin to rape.

While SIECUS claims to be a “leader in the field of sexuality and sex education, publishing numerous books, journals, and resources for professionals, parents, and the public,” Live Action News was unable to locate any information regarding prenatal human development — a natural and potential biological result of heterosexual sex — on the SIECUS website.

SIECUS’ SEX EDUCATION STANDARDS

The Future of Sex Education (FoSE) Initiative — a partnership between Advocates for Youth, Answer, and SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change — utilizes experts and materials from Planned Parenthood and others to develop the The National Sex Education Standards: Core Content and Skills, K–12. Live Action News has previously discussed school sex education created by Advocates for Youth with the help of Planned Parenthood, in our four-part series, “Selling Sex in Schools.”

Their National Sex Education Standards claim that children in grades K-2 should be able to “List medically accurate names for body parts, including the genitals” and “Define reproduction and explain that all living things may have the capacity to reproduce.”

By grades 3-5, those sex education standards say children should be able to…

• “Recall the human reproductive systems, including the external and internal body parts and their functions, and that there are natural variations in human bodies.”
• Discuss “the potential role of hormone blockers on young people who identify as transgender.”
• “Distinguish between sex assigned at birth and gender identity and explain how they may or may not differ” and that “gender expression and gender identity exist along a spectrum.”

By the end of the 8th grade, the standards say students should be able to…

• “Describe how power differences, such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, immigration status, race, or unequal position (e.g. student/teacher, supervisor/employee) may impact relationships”
• “Describe pregnancy testing, the signs of pregnancy, and pregnancy options, including parenting, abortion, and adoption.”

Oddly, it is not until the end of the 10th grade that the sex education standards claim students should be able to “List the major milestones of each trimester of fetal development utilizing medically accurate information.”

SIECUS FOUNDED BY FORMER PLANNED PARENTHOOD MEDICAL DIRECTOR

Dubbed the “grande dame of sex education,” SIECUS founder Mary Steichen Calderone was a former medical director at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Calderone co-founded SIECUS in 1964 with fellow activists Wallace Fulton, Rev. William Genne, Lester Kirkendall, Dr. Harold Lief, and Clark Vincent, and began promoting so-called “comprehensive school-based sexuality education” in schools.

SIECUS today espouses the belief that “sexually explicit visual, printed, or online materials can be valuable educational or personal aids, helping to reduce ignorance and confusion and contributing to a wholesome concept of sexuality” (emphasis added).

“In 1953 [Calderone] became medical director of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where she carried forward Margaret Sanger’s mission for family planning,” wrote the New York Times (NYT) at the time of her death (emphasis added).

From the beginning, SIECUS and Calderone set their sights on “educating” children about sex — and as the NYT sees it, Calderone was “an unstinting advocate for the acceptance of masturbation as a wholesome, normal and almost universal practice for people of all ages.”

“Dr. Calderone believed sex education in the schools should start in kindergarten, and under her direction Siecus helped to set up sex education programs in thousands of schools throughout the country. After stepping down from the presidency, she joined New York University as an adjunct professor in its program on human sexuality. She was active professionally until age 80,” wrote NYT.

Calderone attended a 1950s “Abortion in the United States” conference sponsored by PPFA. Calderone wrote, “Those very concerned with the problem of abortion will be full of gratitude for this report; gratitude to the P.P.F.A. for convening the conference and for the frankness of the [38] participants, who comprised eminent gynaecologists, psychiatrists and a few social workers.”

Then, in 1959, Calderone wrote that abortion was “no longer a dangerous procedure,” because “90 per cent of all illegal abortions are presently being done by physicians. Call them what you will, abortionists or anything else, they are still physicians, trained as such; and many of them are in good standing in their communities.” She added, “This applies not just to therapeutic abortions as performed in hospitals but also to so-called illegal abortions as done by physicians.”

In 1965, Calderone was a member of an American Medical Association (AMA) committee on human reproduction which encouraged the AMA to endorse abortion, and was quoted by the NYT as stating “A woman should not have to go through with having a baby she will shudder to see.”

“By the end of 1965, SIECUS had published its fast three study guides on sex education, homosexuality, and masturbation,” stated the 1989 SIECUS report. The report also noted that, in 1974, SIECUS had passed a policy stating that “free access to full and accurate information on all aspects of sexuality is a basic right for everyone, children as well as adults.”

Calderone had received her M.D. from the University of Rochester in 1939, and her MPH in 1942 at Columbia. She was married in 1941 to Dr. Frank Calderone who eventually became the chief administrative officer of the World Health Organization. Mary Calderone died in 1988.

In the 1990s, the SIECUS website stated that “Comprehensive contraceptive information, education, and services should be readily accessible to adolescents” who needed help to “understand the issues surrounding conception, contraception, parenthood, and prevention of STDs,” adding that “Every woman, regardless of age or income, should have the right to obtain an abortion under safe, legal, confidential, and dignified conditions, and at a reasonable cost.”

In 1997, SIECUS claimed to be “the recognized national leader in the fight to oppose the new federal abstinence-only-until-marriage program in welfare reform,” criticizing the fact that abstinence programs claimed that “sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects.”

SIECUS has claimed that “sex education has the power to spark large-scale social change” and that “Sex ed sits at the nexus of many social justice movements—from LGBTQ rights and reproductive justice to the #MeToo movement and urgent conversations around consent and healthy relationships.”

SIECUS PARTNERS WITH PLANNED PARENTHOOD, PROMOTES ABORTION 

SIECUS “stands with Planned Parenthood” and openly opposed the defunding of the abortion corporation. SIECUS also collaborates with abortion groups in a “Sex Education Coalition,” which includes Planned Parenthood, Advocates for Youth (AFY), and others.

In 1991, SIECUS began publishing its Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education, partnering again with Planned Parenthood in a “national task force of experts in the fields of adolescent development, health care, and education…” the 2004 report states.

Planned Parenthood considers SIECUS a “friend” and Planned Parenthood promotes SIECUS on its website, citing the council in press releases, and collaborating with SIECUS on teen sexuality and LGBTQ subjects. In return, SIECUS has stood with Planned Parenthood against so-called abortion “bans.”

Planned Parenthood staff and leadership have been members of the SIECUS Board (2001), and Planned Parenthood hires personnel associated with SIECUS — like Dr. Sara C. Flowers, Planned Parenthood’s current vice president of education and training, who previously served as a member of SIECUS’ Board of Directors.

SIECUS’ position statements clearly advocate for abortion:

• SIECUS believes that every woman, regardless of age or income, should have the right to obtain an abortion under safe, legal, affordable, easily accessible,  confidential, and dignified conditions. Every woman is entitled to have full knowledge of the options available to her, and to obtain complete and unbiased information and counseling.
• SIECUS believes that abortion counseling and services should be provided by professionals specially trained in this field. SIECUS believes that it is unethical for any organization to use anti-abortion propaganda, misinformation, manipulation, or fear and shame tactics to dissuade women facing unintended pregnancy from exercising their right to choose.
• SIECUS further believes that violence against abortion providers and harassment intended to impede women’s access to these providers are unconscionable attempts to undermine women’s reproductive rights and should be decisively prosecuted by the justice system.

A SIECUS pamphlet on “abortion rights” published in partnership with Planned Parenthood promotes “abortion care” for teens, suggesting that fewer abortions is a bad thing:

The silence and secrecy around abortion causes many young people to not seek desired abortion care or to come across misleading or false information that may influence their decision. In fact, this is the exact hope of the anti-abortion movement: that stigma and shame around abortion will cause women to seek abortion less frequently…

The more abortion is discussed and understood, the less likely attempts to stigmatize and shame it will be successful. Abortion empowers women and people who can become pregnant to make their own best decisions about whether, and when, to have children; build healthy families; and foster sustainable communities.

And yet, it is highly unlikely that SIECUS would want teens to truly understand what happens in the most common abortion procedures. This is not propaganda. Like the “Baby Olivia” prenatal development video, this video discusses facts that the abortion industry and its friends prefer to gloss over to disguise the fact that abortion ends the life of a human being:

SIECUS has received funding from GLSEN, the COYDOG Foundation, the Westwind Foundation, the Grove Foundation, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, George Soros’ Open Society Institute, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.

Many of those foundations fund abortion groups.