Ky. lawmakers want ‘Baby Olivia’ video shown to kids
FRANKFORT, Ky. – “This is the moment that life begins” a narrator says, as sperm meets egg.
That’s how a controversial video at the center of a legislative debate over sex education in Kentucky starts.
The animated video was screened during a recent state House committee hearing on a bill that would require schools to add videos of human development during pregnancy and highdefinition ultrasounds to sex education for students in sixth grade and up.
“The whole intent of ‘Baby Olivia’ is for there to be accurate information communicated at an age-appropriate level, communicating the spectacular growth of the baby in the womb,” said Republican state Rep. Nancy Tate, who introduced House Bill 346.
Tate is also the sponsor of a bill that would require hospitals and birthing centers to provide “perinatal palliative care.” Democrats this week walked out of a committee hearing on that bill, saying it advances a narrow mindset about reproductive care for complicated pregnancies.
The anti-abortion group Live Action created the “Baby Olivia” video in 2021. North Dakota last year enacted a law nearly identical to Tate’s proposal, and three other states – Iowa, Missouri and West Virginia – are considering similar proposals.
Scientists and doctors have criticized the video for inaccuracies, and Democratic lawmakers opposed the bill, saying it will misinform Kentucky students.
Tate said that her bill would not require schools to screen specifically the “Baby Olivia” video, although that would satisfy the bill’s requirement.
Still, the current version of the bill includes a provision that it be titled “the Baby Olivia Act.”
Dr. Daniel Grossman, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, told The Courier Journal there are “several medical inaccuracies” in the video. For example, the video says a heartbeat can be detected as soon as 3 weeks and one day after fertilization.
While doctors and scientists date a pregnancy based on the woman’s last menstrual period, the video dates the pregnancy from the date of fertilization, which “means everything happens two weeks earlier,” Grossman said. Using the video’s dating method, delivery happens at 38 weeks instead of 40 weeks, he said.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has also criticized the video. “Many of the claims made in this video are not aligned with scientific fact, but rather reflect the biased and ideologic perspectives of the extremists who created the video,” it said in a statement.
The Kentucky Education Association also opposes the bill, according to its website.
State Rep. Josie Raymond, a Democrat, told The Courier Journal she would be comfortable with other videos that are more accurate, such as a video from National Geographic.
The bill now needs approval from the full state House to proceed.