Video produced by anti-abortion organization may become a required watch in Utah schools
A fetal development video created by an anti-abortion group may become a required watch in Utah schools with a bill advancing the Legislature this year.
Under legislation by Tooele Republican Representative Nicholeen Peck, starting in 2027, every public school must show a video of at least three minutes depicting “the process of fertilization and each stage of human development inside the uterus” at least twice between 7th and 12th grade.
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According to Peck, anyone could make a video that meets the specifications detailed in the bill. However, the language describes the “Baby Olivia” video, a computer-generated audiovisual produced by the anti-abortion organization Live Action.
“This will be a new resource that (teachers) can use to help the students understand the development of a baby,” Peck told the House on Monday. “They’ll be able to see, starting at conception when the baby starts developing its heart movements, when the baby’s arms start developing. It’s a beautiful, tasteful video.”
The House voted 40-28 to pass the bill and it is now going to the Senate for consideration. If the proposal becomes law, Utah would join six other states that have passed similar “Baby Olivia acts” — North Dakota, Tennessee, Kansas, Idaho, Indiana and Iowa, according to Noah Brandt, vice president of communications and government affairs at Live Action.
But, some Utah lawmakers have criticized the bill arguing that statute shouldn’t be written to match a product, and instead should be drafted by experts trying to solve a problem.
Doctors and abortion rights supporters also say the video misrepresents medical facts, starting by counting the fetus’ age from conception, as opposed to the standard measurement used by doctors, which starts from the last known period.
During a public hearing of the bill by the House Education Committee, Katharine Caldwell, a family physician, called the “Baby Olivia” video a “sensationalized and inaccurate and misleading representation of fetal development.”
“I think that presenting the fetal heartbeat starting at just over three weeks of gestation is quite different from six weeks, and our children deserve medically accurate information and from an unbiased source,” Caldwell said.
During the presentation of the bill, Brandt, from Live Action said that the “conceptual age” the video shows is the true fetal age.
“Instead of the heart beating at about three and a half weeks, when it actually starts beating it’s when the baby comes into existence; last menstrual period would say, ‘well, the baby is six weeks old,’ because it’s adding two weeks where the baby didn’t exist yet. The baby wasn’t conceived yet,” Brandt said.
State Superintendent for Public Instruction Molly Hart said the Utah State Board of Education hasn’t taken a position on the bill. But she said Utah schools already have standards that cover human development instruction, though not in that specific format.
“The districts do show a video for fetal development, but they choose their own aligned to their communities and approved processes,” Hart said. “The state board and the legislature have spent considerable time on approving practices and procedures for vetting curriculum, and this is not it.”
The board also vetted the video and it didn’t meet the board’s criteria, Hart said.
“The laws that are set emphasize teaching required standards, not prescribing one specific tool or vendor resource,” Hart said, “and this would be a departure from that.”
While an officer from Live Action helped Peck present the bill to the committee last week, conservative lawmakers contested that the legislation was prescribing a vendor.
“The bill doesn’t require a specific video,” said Clearfield Republican Representative Karianne Lisonbee on Thursday. “But also the feedback is frankly silly, because there is no fifth or sixth grader that is thinking about, ‘Oh my gosh, this is not medically accurate, because some medical professionals use LMP, and some medical professionals sometimes will refer to actual fertilization.’”
Lisonbee also highlighted that parents are allowed to opt out of the human development program.
