The Iowa House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that requires schools to show a video comparable to the Meet Baby Olivia video that shows the process of fertilization and every stage of human development inside the uterus while noting significant markers in cell growth and organ development for every significant marker of pregnancy until birth.
House File 2617 also requires schools to include instruction regarding human biology related to pregnancy and human development inside the womb under the human growth and development curriculum.
Republican State Rep. Anne Osmundson said the bill ensures teaching human biology related to pregnancy and fetal development in grades 7-12 will take place in Iowa.
But Democrats opposed the measure.
Democrat State Rep. Molly Buck said the video suggested in the bill comes from an “anti-abortion” group and it lacks accuracy and integrity.
Live Action, the organization behind the video, exists to “rescue innocent children from abortion,” which Buck criticized. She went on to question some of the science in the video, noting that some healthcare professionals disagree with the science included in the film.
“The question of when life begins is deeply personal,” Buck said. “It varies among individuals, it varies among families and honestly it varies among faiths.”
Buck said it isn’t the role of the legislature to prescribe curriculum, calling the Baby Olivia video “propaganda.”
Democrat Minority Leader State Rep. Jennifer Konfrst said the legislature shouldn’t be in the business of telling schools what they can or cannot teach. Konfrst said students are being taught this subject already in Iowa, but the legislature is pushing the effort because it isn’t the information Republicans want them to be taught.
Konfrst said while she hears about indoctrination all the time, this bill represents indoctrination. Live Action, which produced the Baby Olivia video, has said the video exists to shift public opinion and the group is dedicated to supporting a culture of life.
“That’s an agenda,” Konfrst said. “That’s a political agenda and it’s behind something that you want to put in the classroom. This is indoctrination. This is putting content in the classroom to change students’ minds about a political issue. I don’t want to ever hear again that teachers indoctrinate students.”
Democrat State Rep. Sharon Steckman said the Baby Olivia video is a “piece of propaganda being imposed on our children from an extreme group.” Fellow Democrat State Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell implored the legislature to “be honest with our kids” and spoke against the bill.
Osmundson noted in her closing comments that the Baby Olivia video is not required under the bill, it is just a suggestion. She also took issue with claims the video is inaccurate, noting several medical experts and science educators from across the country have endorsed the short video.
“The bill ensures the teaching to our children of basic facts about human development in a very appropriate way,” Osmundson said. “This is scientific information. This is teaching basic biology to our children and it helps to answer one of life’s biggest questions — ‘Where do I come from.’”
Wow, how horrible that Baby Olivia video is “dedicated to supporting a culture of life.”
Those opposing this bill must logically, then, support a culture of death. Our children are being surrounded and saturated in a culture of death constantly. What legislators could be about promoting death? That is immoral and evil. Stop doing that to our children.