TN bill to require schools show fetal development video, cites anti-abortion ‘Baby Olivia’

Tennessee school children could be required to view a three-minute ultrasound or computer animation of a developing fetus as part of state-required family life curriculum under a new Republican-backed bill advancing in the state House.

The bill specifically lists “Meet Baby Olivia,” an animation developed by the prominent anti-abortion advocacy group Live Action, as a video that would meet the bill's requirements.

House Republicans on Tuesday gave first approval to House Bill 2435, which would require family life curriculums in Tennessee schools that cover human growth, development or sexuality to include the video showing the "brain, heart, sex organs, and other vital organs in early fetal development."

“This is the moment that life begins,” the Baby Olivia presenter says in the video as an animated sperm unites with an ovum. “A new human being has come into existence. At fertilization, her gender, ethnicity, hair color, eye color, and countless traits are already determined.”

Schools could choose to show a different three-minute animation or high-resolution ultrasound depicting embryonic development: the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, said better animations or ultrasounds may become available in the future, and does not intend to limit schools to just one video.

If the bill is successful, the schools would be required to show the video beginning in the 2024-25 school year.

"It is a scientific fact that human life begins at conception," Bulso said. "At fertilization, you've got all 46 chromosomes, you have the entire genetic makeup of the child and from that point on it's simply a matter of growth and development. So if you've got something that's growing from the moment of conception on, I have no idea how anybody could say that you did not have life. You obviously you've got life because something is growing."

Similar legislation, all specifically referencing Live Action’s Baby Olivia video, has passed or is being considered in Missouri, North Dakota, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Iowa.

Bulso’s proposal comes weeks after a controversial Alabama Supreme Court decision that frozen embryos created during IVF treatments should be considered children, based on the same principle that human life begins at the moment of fertilization ― which prompted IVF providers in Alabama to temporarily close amid concerns of civil or criminal prosecution.

Live Action recently decried Alabama lawmakers over their bipartisan legislative remedy to the court's ruling ― a bill to grant civil and criminal immunity to IVF providers in Alabama ― as “a license to kill,” saying that it would “result in thousands of dead human beings.”

“If killing a human embryo through abortion is wrong, so is killing a human embryo through the process of IVF,” the group shared on social media of the Alabama bill. “Preborn humans, either in the womb or in an IVF clinic, are equally and intrinsically valuable.”

In response to questions on the bill’s implications for IVF in Tennessee, Bulso told The Tennessean that his bill does not impact IVF.

“This bill has got nothing to do with IVF. It is strictly looking at a presentation of a scientifically accurate computer generated video or ultrasound that shows human life and development from conception through birth, and it doesn’t get into IVF at all,” Bulso said.

Republican lawmakers have increasingly tightened restrictions on abortion in Tennessee based on similar principles. Abortion rights advocates remain concerned about the future of women's contraceptive access ― and access to IVF.

“If Live Action has taken positions on IVF in Alabama or elsewhere, that has nothing to do with the video," Bulso said. "It’s got nothing to do with the bill that I filed."

Democrats, Republicans disagree on video's neutrality

During debate before the House Education Instruction Committee on Tuesday, Democrats asserted that the video cited in the bill did not remain neutral on whether abortion is ethical.

Bulso denied that the video is designed to convince school children of anything, simply to educate them on what is settled scientific fact. He noted that fetal development data for the Baby Olivia video came from The Endowment for Human Development, a neutral bioethics nonprofit.

But according to Live Action, the Baby Olivia project was specifically designed to convince the public that abortion is unethical.

“Why are pro-abortion activists so afraid of Baby Olivia? Because when students learn the scientific reality that life begins at fertilization – they realize that killing preborn babies is wrong,” a recent social media post from the group reads.

Christian group Focus on the Family has said that the Baby Olivia video “holds great potential to change hearts and minds by simply exposing young people to the facts and images many abortion activists would prefer to hide and ignore.”

“This bill is anti-abortion legislation that is being moved through our committee so that it is integrated into the public education system,” Rep. Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville, said during the committee debate.

Democrats question accuracy of video

During committee discussion, members disagreed along party lines about the accuracy of the video. Bulso described the video as “demonstrated to be 100% scientifically accurate,” and his Republican colleague Rep. Chris Todd, R-Madison County, agreed.

“I was trained as a biologist, and it’s definitely accurate. It’s incredibly accurate,,” Todd said, noting that Eagle eggs are protected by federal law. “We have a lot of things in our society that are protected … in the environmental world and animal world."

But Behn and Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, noted medical inaccuracies in the video, including its use of the sound of a fully-developed fetal heartbeat during animated depiction of electric impulses at three weeks which later develop into a heartbeat around six weeks into a pregnancy. The video also measures the timeline of pregnancy from the moment of fertilization, they noted, instead of the medical standard of weeks since the last menstrual cycle.

“That video is an attempt to advance the idea that fetuses are people and that abortion care is wrong,” Johnson said. “This video is deceptive and problematic for a young audience. It’s designed to manipulate the emotions of viewers, and as the physicians say, is not medically accurate.”

According to the Live Action website, the Baby Olivia video was reviewed by primarily by physicians who are affiliated with anti-abortion advocacy groups, including Dr. David Bolender of the Medical College of Wisconsin, Dr. Donna Harrison of the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs, Dr. Michelle Cretella, executive director of the American College of Pediatricians, and Dr. Jeffrey Barrows, senior vice president of Bioethics and Public Policy for Christian Medical & Dental Associations, and Dr. Tara Sander Lee and Dr. Katrina Furth, both of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research and education arm of the conservative anti-abortion group, the Susan B. Anthony list.

“No, the video is not medically inaccurate,” Bulso argued. “It is a completely accurate demonstration of embryonic development.”

The House Education Instruction Committee advanced the bill over Democratic opposition on a voice vote. The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday delayed consideration of the bill to March 20 at 3 p.m. CT.

Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at vjones@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TN education bill cites anti-abortion group's 'Baby Olivia' video