Fact Check: Critics claim Baby Olivia isn’t based on ‘medical fact’ and is ‘brainwashing’ children

Ohio Representative Melanie Miller introduced The Baby Olivia Act last month, which would establish prenatal development education requirements for public schools; since then, she has faced major pushback from the pro-abortion lobby. 

Key Takeaways:

• A pro-abortion advocate claimed Ohio's "Baby Olivia Act" is "nonsense," "utterly nonsensical," "misleading," and brainwashes children.

• However, the facts tell a different story: the "Baby Olivia" video was endorsed by medical experts and produced using already-published research on human prenatal development.

The Details:

The Baby Olivia video, developed by Live Action, is a medically accurate computer animation of human life starting from fertilization. The Ohio bill would provide a pathway for a comprehensive education on human development to promote the understanding of human life starting at fertilization. 

A Never Before Seen Look At Human Life In The Womb | Baby Olivia

Abortion advocate, journalist, and former abortion clinic escort Lauren Rankin spoke out against the Ohio Baby Olivia Act, claiming it is “anti-abortion nonsense” and the videos “aren’t based on medical information.” She added, “If abortion opponents really wanted the nation’s children to be properly educated about anatomy and biology, they would not be opposed to comprehensive sex education.”

CLAIM #1: ‘Baby Olivia was not produced by experts.’

Rankin claims, “These videos aren’t produced by OB-GYNs or scientists. They aren’t based on medical information.”

Baby Olivia was developed by Live Action alongside a panel of embryonic and fetal development specialists and other medical doctors. This panel of experts included Dr. David Bolender, PhD, Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy, Medical College of Wisconsin; Dr. Donna Harrison (AAPLOG); Dr. Tara Sander Lee (Charlotte Lozier); Dr. Katrina Furth (Charlotte Lozier); Michelle Cretella, MD, Executive Director of American College of Pediatricians; and Jeffrey Barrows, DO, MA (Ethics), Senior VP Bioethics and Public Policy. 

One certified OB-GYN, Kathi Aultman, MD, FACOG, commented that the video "is a spectacular and medically accurate portrayal of the development of a baby girl within the womb. It is based on information from the Endowment for Human Development, a highly respected scientific source on embryology and fetal development.... As a retired OB/GYN, I wish this had been available for my patients" (emphases added).

National Geographic distributes the Endowment for Human Development's (EHD) own prenatal development DVD (which uses many of the same milestones and development timeline as Baby Olivia).

CLAIM #2: 'Hiccups don't begin until much later.’ 

Rankin claims, “fetal hiccups don’t begin until 23 weeks.” While it is true that the mother might not feel the hiccups until later in the pregnancy, research shows that fetal hiccups begin well before the 23-week mark. 

Many of the informational facts – including fetal hiccups – present in Baby Olivia are credited to the EHD, which is a nonprofit organization committed to enhancing health science education and public health. Their “board of directors, board of advisors, staff, and volunteers includes accomplished educators, researchers, authors, programmers, and clinicians from a variety of scientific and business disciplines who share the common goal of improving lifelong health through prenatal development-based education.”

The EHD establishes that at seven weeks post-fertilization, preborn babies' “fingers separate; hands and feet come together,” but “by [seven] weeks … hiccups begin.” 

A study in Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology from 2021 reveals, “a number of movement patterns including general movements, isolated limb and head movements, hiccup, and breathing movements, appear” at 9.5-10.5 weeks’ gestation (or 7.5-8.5 weeks post-fertilization).

The information in Baby Olivia surrounding fetal hiccups is medically and scientifically backed by doctors, specialists, studies, and research.  

CLAIM #3: Baby Olivia is ‘brainwashing’ children.

Rankin states, “This is a blatant attempt to brainwash young children… against abortion with an emotionally manipulative, misleading, and utterly nonsensical understanding of reproductive science.” 

No matter how many inaccurate adjectives you throw at the Baby Olivia video, the facts show that it:

• is a scientifically accurate representation of human development that has been reviewed and endorsed by many medical professionals.

• educates children on scientific facts, in similar ways that biology is presented in these same classrooms.

Baby Olivia laws have been passed by numerous states, requiring various types of prenatal education in public schools, including the viewing of actual ultrasounds that identify the body parts of the growing human being in the womb. 

Rankin states that these children, “many of whom at the third-grade level may not even understand ‘where babies come from’ yet” are being ‘manipulated’ by Baby Olivia.

But what does the pro-abortion lobby have to say about presenting sex education to young children?

Planned Parenthood, which claims to be the “single largest provider of sex education,” states, “sex education works best when it’s: … taught early and often.” The sex education materials provided by Planned Parenthood claim that “children are sexual from birth” and seek to promote teaching sex education as early as kindergarten.   

When Planned Parenthood introduces “sex education” to young children it’s applauded by abortion advocates; when lawmakers require basic human biology to be taught in the classroom, somehow it’s “brainwashing.”

Children must understand basic human prenatal development, and Baby Olivia provides a roadmap to understanding the incredible process of a human being's growth from fertilization. 

The Bottom Line:

The abortion industry has intentionally ended the lives of real, living, actual — not potential — human beings (over a million every year), because our culture refuses to acknowledge the biological fact that each new human being's life begins at fertilization.

This isn’t fiction — it’s fact. Baby Olivia bridges the gap that our educational curriculum is missing. 

The abortion industry does not want accurate prenatal education, because then, they would be forced to acknowledge the truth: abortion kills a human being.