'Baby Olivia' bill requiring TN schools show fetal development video heads to final vote

Only one major vote remains before a bill could require Tennessee school children in at least 78 counties to view a 3-minute fetal development video.

Senate Bill 2767 would mandate inclusion of a 3-minute computer-generated or high definition ultrasound video depicting fetal development in family life curricula across the state beginning in the 2024-25 school year. The bill cites as an example an animation developed by an anti-abortion activist group asserting that human life begins at conception.

“A family life curriculum that directly or indirectly addresses human growth, human development, human sexuality would be incomplete if it didn’t actually show the very beginning of that life, which is at conception,” bill sponsor Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, said during a committee hearing Wednesday.

The legislation specifically cites “Meet Baby Olivia,” a video produced by Live Action as an example of one that would fit the requirements. But that video has been criticized by Planned Parenthood leadership as “inaccurate and emotionally manipulative.” Tennessee Democrats, too, have questioned the video’s neutrality and medical accuracy, and called it an effort “to advance the idea that fetuses are people and that abortion care is wrong.”

"It seems we are placing a political organization's video into our code,” Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, said.

The bill is now steamrolling toward a final Senate vote after members of the Senate Education Committee passed the bill on a 6-1 vote on March 20. The House passed the legislation March 18 in 67-23 vote. With Senate passage, the bill could soon be headed to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk.

The bill does not specifically require the “Meet Baby Olivia” video and, as written, would not preclude schools from showing an alternative fetal development video, including one produced by any pro-abortion rights group, if one existed.

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.

Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, said required viewing of the Live Action video could be harmful for Tennessee students.

“‘Baby Olivia’ is a fake ultrasound video that depicts fetal development in an unscientific and emotionally manipulative way by a radical anti-abortion organization,” Coffield said. “It parrots the same lies and misinformation that anti-abortion groups and lawmakers used to impose a total abortion ban on Tennessee.”

Live Action has publicly defended the medical and scientific accuracy of the Baby Olivia video, citing the source of many of the assertions made in the script as coming from the Endowment for Human Development, a bioethics nonprofit.

But content of the video has not been endorsed by any neutral medical organization, such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Live Action has criticized ACOG as "a highly politicized organization that, despite the disagreement of thousands of its members, advocates for abortion on demand."

Proponents of the bill, including the Tennessee House Republican Caucus, have noted that the video has been reviewed by physicians. Bill sponsor Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, has called the video “a completely accurate demonstration of embryonic development.”

"The Baby Olivia video is a medically reviewed, detailed depiction of the growth of a child from conception to birth. It tells the factual, biological truth about when human life begins," the House GOP Caucus shared in a social media post this week. "It is unsettling for pro-choice Americans and those at ACOG because it shows what they would otherwise choose to ignore, which is the fact that from zygote to embryo to fetus to baby to toddler and so on, we are talking about human beings."

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

"It is a fact that children in the womb are human beings; they will possess traits that are characteristic of their species. Live Action and the medical experts we collaborated with stand by the scientific accuracy of every aspect in Baby Olivia," Live Action President Lila Rose said in a statement to The Tennessean. "Baby Olivia is a medically accurate, animated glimpse of human life from the moment of fertilization. This story details her growth as she progresses from one developmental stage to the next in preparation for her continued life outside of the womb. Every student in America should have access to world-class educational materials on the science behind human development in the womb."

A Live Action spokesperson acknowledged to The Tennessean that the Baby Olivia video uses a different timeline of fetal development than one used by physicians ― calculating development stages from the time of fertilization or "conceptual age," and not from the beginning of the mother's last menstrual period as is the medical standard in the United States.

Nearly all the physicians touted on Live Action’s website who reviewed the video are also publicly affiliated with groups that advocate against abortion. Coffield called Live Action “an extremist political operation” that has used “lies and misinformation” to advance an anti-abortion agenda across the country. The group recently described Alabama legislation offering civil and criminal immunity to IVF providers as "a license to kill."

The Live Action spokesperson declined to provide a full list of donors to the 501(c)3 nonprofit that backed creation of the Baby Olivia animation, but said that the organization has more than 40,000 donors, and there was no one specific donation that funded the project.

“They have been suspended or banned from several social media platforms, including TikTok and Twitter for spreading misinformation, conspiracy theories and graphic content,” Coffield said. “This legislation brings that content into our schools.”

Family life curriculum is required by state law in all counties where the teen birth rate exceeds 19.5 per 1,000 females between the ages of 15 and 19. That's 78 of the state's 95 counties, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The young people in Tennessee deserve the best opportunity to build the lives that they want for themselves,” Coffield said. “Real sex education, not misinformation designed to mislead viewers, is key to ensuring that they're able to do so.”

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

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: 'Baby Olivia' bill heads toward final vote in Tennessee Senate