A three-minute-long animated video created by the anti-abortion group Live Action is being pushed into classrooms across the country, but medical professionals and educators say the video is scientifically misleading and designed to push an ideological perspective.
The video, nicknamed “Baby Olivia,” claims to show the stages of fetal development through computer-generated imaging. However, the narration makes several misrepresentations about when a fetal heartbeat can be detected and how early a fetus can survive outside the womb.
Language used in the video also humanizes the fetus from the moment of conception – an approach pushed by anti-abortion advocates.
The video has inspired conservative lawmakers to pass legislation mandating that students watch a “high-quality, computer-generated animation” of at least three minutes in length that depicts fetal heart, brain and vital organ development.
Students in Tennessee who take any class having remotely to do with human development or family life are required to watch the video, and at least five other states have tried to pass similar laws.
Now lawmakers in Iowa are considering making the video required viewing for students between first and 12th grade, and excise medical organizations such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists from its list of “leading professional organizations … with relevant experience in the field.”
It’s the second time in two years in which Iowa legislators are trying to pass the bill inspired by the video. Abortion is outlawed in Iowa after six weeks of pregnancy.
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa accused politicians of “preying on our youth by requiring they watch medically false and misleading information.”
“Instead, students should be equipped with sex education that sets them up with the medically accurate information they need to make healthy decisions for their lives, now and in the future,” Mazie Stilwell, the director of public affairs said in a statement.
A similar bill has been introduced in Arkansas, West Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Missouri.
Live Action, the creator of the video, is a nonprofit that aims to end abortion, in part by spreading opinions. They refer to fetuses as “preborn children” and only define abortion as a dilation and evacuation, which is typically done in the second trimester and is not the most common form of abortion.
The “Baby Olivia” video claims a fetal heartbeat can be detected at three weeks gestation which medical professionals say is inaccurate. Fetal heartbeats can be detected, at the earliest, at six weeks. The video also claims a fetus can survive outside the womb at 20 weeks gestation “with a lot of help.” Medical consensus indicates deliveries before 23 weeks have only a five to six percent survival rate.
A spokesperson for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology said in a statement that the video is “designed to manipulate the emotions of views.”
"Like much anti-abortion misinformation, the ‘Baby Olivia’ video is designed to manipulate the emotions of viewers rather than to share evidence-based, scientific information about embryonic and fetal development," a representative told NPR last year.
"Many of the claims made in this video are not aligned with scientific fact, but rather reflect the biased and ideological perspectives of the extremists who created the video."
