CHARLESTON, W.VA. -- West Virginia's Republican-majority Senate greenlit a bill on Tuesday that would make a video on fetal development produced by an anti-abortion group required viewing in public schools.
Live Action鈥檚 鈥淏aby Olivia鈥� video, which West Virginia lawmakers want to show in eighth and tenth-grade classrooms, has received criticism from physicians and educators who say it misleads viewers. It is already being used in some schools in North Dakota, though it wasn't specifically mandated in the law passed last year in that state. Similar bills have been proposed in Iowa, Kentucky and Missouri.
The bill now heads to the House of Delegates for consideration.
The animated video is meant to visualize development in the womb, depicting an egg being fertilized and implanted and progressing through embryonic and fetal developments occurring throughout a pregnancy. A voiceover introduces viewers to Olivia as an illustration of a fully developed baby in utero appears on screen. Olivia鈥檚 mouth and eyes open and close, and her hands move.
The video refers to a 鈥渉eartbeat" at six weeks. At that point, the embryo isn鈥檛 yet a fetus and doesn鈥檛 have a heart. It also describes the animated figure鈥檚 motion and actions with words like 鈥減laying,鈥� 鈥渆xploring,鈥� 鈥渟ighing,鈥� and making 鈥渟peaking movements" 鈥� language critics have said assign human traits and properties to a fetus that are more sophisticated than medicine can prove.
Speaking during his chamber's floor Tuesday, Republican Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo said he couldn鈥檛 support the bill because it contains 鈥済rossly inaccurate鈥� information contradictory to science. A working pulmonologist, he had pushed for a change to the bill that would have required any video shown in school to be scientifically accurate. That effort failed.
鈥淚f we鈥檙e going to codify something that we鈥檙e going to teach, 鈥榯his is fact,鈥� it needs to be fact,鈥� he said.
Republican Sen. Amy Grady, the chamber's education chair and a public school teacher, said the legislation is not 鈥渁nti-abortion." Grady, who voted for the state's near-total abortion ban that passed in 2022, said all of her students have different learning styles: some like reading textbooks, some are more tactile learners, others visual learners.
鈥淭hose photos in a textbook help some students, but not all of them,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his computer-generated image or this computer-generated video, an animated video, puts it in terms that kids can understand and it lets them see it, and lets them see the growth happen."
Republican Patricia Rucker said the video 鈥渋s not political and it is not religious: It is a springboard for conversation.鈥�
鈥淚t does not replace the resources teachers are using right now, currently, in the state of West Virginia 鈥� it鈥檚 not asking them to throw a single one of those resources out,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t is one short video shown twice in our schools to help make the subject more approachable.鈥�
Democratic Sen. Mike Woelfel said, however, that he fears it runs afoul of the First Amendment right to religious freedom. His personal belief, like Grady's, is that life begins at conception, but not everyone agrees, he said.
He mentioned Jewish students, citing a belief in that faith that life begins at birth. The same argument has been used to challenge abortion bans across the country in court.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 have any problem with the video 鈥� I would gladly show that video in the Catholic school that my grandchildren attend," he said. "But I鈥檝e taken an oath to obey the Constitution and to uphold it, and for that reason, I would urge a no vote.鈥�
The 鈥淏aby Olivia鈥� bill also contains a provision added after its introduction that requires the teaching of the Holocaust and a reading of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank in tenth or eleventh grade.
Live Action says on its website it 鈥渆xists today to shift public opinion鈥� on abortion and is dedicated to supporting a 鈥渃ulture of life.鈥�
The organization spent nearly US$5 million in 2022 to create and distribute content widely, according to filing reports. Those reports also show Live Action more than quadrupled its cash from contributions and grants in just four years, totaling US$14 million in 2022.
Live Action also is known for efforts to expose Planned Parenthood, publishing videos and reports obtained by posing as patients.
Founder Lila Rose told The Associated Press the video was made in consultation with doctors and was designed to be informative, lifelike and appropriate for anyone. It calls out general markers in what Rose said is an 鈥渁verage developmental process鈥� using 鈥渨eeks after fertilization.鈥� That鈥檚 different from 鈥渨eeks after the last menstrual cycle,鈥� which is what a pregnant person would typically hear from a doctor
Associated Press reporter Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report from Des Moines, Iowa.
