Committee advances bill adding pregnancy ultrasound video to Indiana sex ed requirements

Hoosier elementary school students could be required to watch a pregnancy ultrasound video as part of their curricula if a bill moving through the House keeps its momentum.

Language mandating Indiana’s sex education instruction to include a presentation on “human growth and development during pregnancy” was officially baked into Senate Bill 442 on Wednesday.

The add-in was approved along party lines by the House Education Committee, as was the underlying bill, which now heads to the chamber floor.

Terre Haute Democrat Rep. Tonya Pfaff emphasized that the bill “is not needed at all.”

“We already have a class on child development, which goes into a lot of detail on how a baby is grown during the nine months of pregnancy,” Pfaff said. “I just don’t like this idea of mandating that kids have to watch this. I would prefer that — if they’re interested in this — watch it with their parents.”

Pfaff further questioned how the ultrasound video would be selected. Republican Rep. Julie McGuire, who proposed the language, said decisions would be left to local boards.

“I found 16 videos in about 10 minutes on YouTube,” said McGuire, of Indianapolis. “There’s so much material out there. It doesn’t have to be that prescriptive.”

Changes to sex ed instruction

At its core, Senate Bill 442 seeks to require any instruction and learning materials used to teach “human sexuality” for grades 4-12 be approved by a school board.

Basic information about the curriculum would have to be published in a “conspicuous” place on the school’s website. That includes a list of classes, by grade level, “in which any instruction concerning human sexuality will be taught,’ and whether that  instruction “will be provided by a male or female instructor.”

The school’s parental consent form — which lets parents remove their children from sexual education classes — would also need a link to that information. A grievance procedure would additionally need to be in place for parents to call out non-compliant schools.

Critics of the bill have repeatedly noted, however, that Indiana parents already have the right to remove their child from sex education classes. And some schools don’t provide such classes at all.

The introduction of sex education usually starts in the fourth grade, according to state guidelines. But Indiana does not require the course in schools. Instead, it only mandates that schools teach lessons on HIV and AIDS. Schools that do teach sex education are expected to focus on abstinence.

Currently, school boards have the authority to review and approve curricular materials. State law further requires school corporations to make instructional materials available to parents so that they can consent to instruction on human sexuality.

But bill author Sen. Gary Byrne, R-Byrneville, questioned if school boards “are actually having conversations” about that curriculum. He previously said the proposal stemmed from concerns brought to him by teachers and parents, and that his intention is to “help parents better decide whether they want to opt their child out” of sex ed courses.

Byrne introduced a similar bill in 2024 that advanced from the Senate but died in the House without a committee hearing.

The ultrasound provision would require students to view a “high-definition ultrasound video,” at least three minutes long, “showing the development of the brain, heart, sex organs and other vital organs in early fetal development;” as well as a “high-quality computer-generated rendering or animation” showing “the process of fertilization and each stage of fetal development inside the uterus, noting significant markers in cell growth and organ development for every week of pregnancy from fertilization to birth.”

Like Pfaff, Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, maintained that “I don’t think we should be doing this.”

“I thought we were having legislation on human sexuality and the training of human sexuality — not lessons on maternity or chordate anatomy, which seems to be what this is,” he said. “I think this opens this bill up to a serious discussion on the (House) floor about education and videos about STDs and everything else that in any way is related to sex.”

Other bills on the move

In a separate move, House lawmakers abandoned contentious language that could have increased permissions for high school students to leave school for religious instruction.

Sen. Spencer Deery, R-West Lafayette, framed his Senate Bill 255 as a means to tighten up existing law by preventing public high school students from missing large amounts of time from one class for out-of-school faith-based lessons.

Hoosier students are already permitted to miss up to 120 minutes of class each week for optional religious instruction hosted off school grounds.

Lawmakers debate if students should miss some — or all — of a class for religious instruction

Deery’s bill suggested a tweak, however, to allow older students to effectively replace an elective course with religious instruction. The existing two-hour limit for elementary and middle school students would remain the same. 

The proposal was criticized by House Democrats, who questioned how an increased exemption for religious instruction would benefit students. They emphasized, too, that Deery’s proposed changes could permit daily absences and more than double the amount of time that can be spent away from traditional classes.

Although the bill advanced to the House floor last month, committee chairman Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said the religious instruction language was found to be nongermane — too irrelevant — to the underlying bill, which mainly deals with teacher transition programs. 

The committee sent the bill back to the chamber on Wednesday with the provision on religious instruction gone entirely.

Tensions also rose over a bill that would require Indiana’s Commission for Higher Education (CHE) to have a heavier hand in higher education programming and decision-making.

Under Senate Bill 448, which advanced to the House floor along party lines, CHE would have to review all public college and university degree programs — currently there are more than 3,000 — at least once every 10 years. 

When doing so, the commission would have to consider factors like labor markets, job placement, stackable credentials and work-based learning to determine if a degree should continue to be offered.

Among the bill’s other provisions is another requirement for university boards of trustees to “assess and review the staffing needs” of the school during tenure reviews, which would then have to be shared with CHE. 

“What I want to make sure is that we’re being smart as we’re educating and developing the workforce, and to make sure that we put Indiana first — while at the same time — continue to be a magnet for individuals from outside of Indiana,” said bill author Sen. Greg Goode, R-Terre Haute.

Indiana Higher Education Commissioner Chris Lowery was on board, but Democrats were not.

They worried, for example, that CHE would have “too much power” to approve or disapprove university programs and faculty. Concerns were also raised over academic freedom implications that could come from potentially limiting programs that aren’t directly tied to workforce needs.

DeLaney repeatedly argued that the bill transforms CHE’s relationship with universities, from a collaborative partner to a mandate-driven authority.

“For those who want to be really nervous, you pass this, and the gentleman down the hall — the lieutenant governor — becomes the governor, and who does he put in charge the Commission on Higher Education? And how much power do we want that person to have?” DeLaney said. “That’s what the stakes are here. This is about taking a cooperative system, that’s evolved over decades and has succeeded, and making it a mandate-from-above system.”