The House Education Instruction Committee advanced legislation Tuesday that would require Tennessee students to watch a fetal development video created by a group that opposes abortion rights.
The committee voted on party lines in favor of Representative Gino Bulso’s, R-Brentwood, family life curriculum bill requiring schoolchildren to watch “Meet Baby Olivia.” Abortion rights opposition group Live Action created the three-minute ultrasound computer animation focusing on the development of a fetus for family life curriculums.
That curriculum has been a required course for students enrolled in physical education or health and wellness courses in Tennessee since the 2021/2022 school year.
“The bill premise is simply on the existence of the three minutes, 21 seconds video which has been demonstrated to be 100 percent scientifically accurate,” said Bulso.
The video found support among Republicans on the committee.
Representative Chris Todd, R-Madison County, called “Meet Baby Olivia” accurate and important to show.
“I watched the video after seeing this on the calendar and as a biologist – I was trained as a biologist – it’s definitely accurate, it’s incredibly accurate, and I think presenting everyone with the facts of how life begins is very important,” said Todd.
Committee Democrats expressed strong opposition to the video and questioned its accuracy.
Representative Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville, called the bill a piece of anti-abortion legislation.
“Members of the audience, if you’re wondering why we’re here in an education instruction committee it’s because this bill is a piece of anti-abortion legislation that is being moved through out committee so that it is integrated into our public school system,” said Behn.
Behn also questioned whether Live Action benefits monetarily from the video being shown in school.
Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, argued professionals, such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), disagree with the video’s medical accuracy and claim there’s no scientific backing.
“The video mischaracterizes how early survival outside the womb is possible, the video’s heartbeat mentions are problematic because the heart would not yet be developed at the point that Live Action claims, (and) noted that the video uses a sound of a fully developed heartbeat rather than the electrical impulses that are apparent at that time. Others have said it’s problematic because there’s no scientific consensus on the exact moment a human life begins and that video is an attempt to advance the idea that fetuses are people and that abortion care is wrong,” said Johnson. “My concern here that 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.”
Bulso disagreed saying Live Action sourced professionals from all over the world for the animation’s development. He also claimed that Live Action’s founder Lila Rose formed the group to produce scientifically accurate facts about human development, though Rose initially formed the group with a goal to oppose abortion.
“The extent that there are some experts who claim that the video is inaccurate, I am not surprised because having lived my life in the courtroom, in any case where you have expert testimony, it’s very common that one side has an expert to support one opinion, the other side gets an expert to support the contrary opinions. So, the fact that there are dueling opinions about perhaps this video is not surprising,” said Bulso.
The bill now goes to the full House. It also faces a vote in the Senate Education Committee Wednesday afternoon.
