House passes bill requiring schools show fetal development videos to students

As the Iowa House passed a bill requiring schools to show fetal development videos to students, Democrats raised concerns about the measure being used to push anti-abortion views.

House File 2617 passed 58-35 Tuesday, going to the Senate for consideration. The legislation would require instructors of human growth and development and health classes to show students in grades 7 through 12 videos that show ultrasounds, growth of a fetus’ brain, heart and organs as well as rendering or animations of the process of fertilization, fetal growth during a pregnancy until birth.

The bill cites “Meet Baby Olivia” as an example of what material should be shown by classrooms. The “Baby Olivia” video was created by an anti-abortion group Live Action. The organization’s website names a goal to “shift public opinion on the killing of preborn children.”

Rep. Molly Buck, D-Ankeny, said the legislation would advocate for a specific, anti-abortion position, but would also spread “misinformation.” Some of the details and timelines of fetal development, presented as fact in the video, do not align with information on these subjects as presented by medical organizations like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, she said.

Schools should encourage students to develop critical thinking skills, Buck said, not “serve as a platform for personal views or misinformation.”

“The question of when life begins is deeply personal,” Buck said. “It varies among individuals, it varies among families, and honestly it varies among faiths. And it’s not the role of our chamber to prescribe what people believe, or require teachers to influence young people with propaganda. Our focus should be on nurturing an educational environment that values independent thinking, a teaching environment that supports educators and environment that prepares students to engage thoughtfully with complex issues.”

Democrats also criticized the legislation for being part of a larger, national movement to require “Baby Olivia” and similar videos be shown in school classrooms. A version of the legislation was signed into law in North Dakota in 2023, and state legislatures in West Virginia, Missouri and Kentucky are currently considering similar proposals this year.

Rep. Sharon Steckman, D-Mason City, cited reporting from the West Virginia debate on the bill where the West Virginia Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo, a Republican, voted against requiring schools show the “Baby Olivia” video because of the medical inaccuracies on fetal development it includes.

“This is what he said: ‘If we’re going to codify something that we’re going to teach, this is fact — it needs to be a fact,'” Steckman said. “In my opinion, this video is promoting a public opinion. And it reminds me of a quote I heard just the other day … it said, ‘To enshrine one opinion in our schools is the very definition of politics.'”

The legislation’s floor manager, Rep. Anne Osmundson, R-Volga, emphasized that “Baby Olivia” video was not required by the bill, but was a “suggestion.” However, Osmundson defended the video, saying that information included was “reviewed and endorsed by several medical experts.”

She also said the measure would ensure Iowa students are learning “a basic fact about human development in a very approachable way.”

“This is scientific information,” Osmundson said. “This is teaching basic biology to our children. And it helps to answer one of life’s biggest questions: Where did I come from?”