Prenatal development bill heads to Indiana governor’s desk

A prenatal development bill has passed in Indiana and is headed to the desk of Gov. Mike Braun. It requires that students in sexual education classes view human prenatal development videos as part of their curriculum — both an actual ultrasound and an animated rendering. While Indiana is one of many states working to enact such laws, there has been pushback from abortion supporters and inaccurate reporting regarding the bill.

Sex education starts in the fourth grade, typically, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. However, Indiana does not require sex education classes to be taught in schools; instead, it mandates that schools teach about HIV and AIDS. Schools that choose not to teach sex education are expected to focus on abstinence.

Senate Bill 442 states that “if a school provides instruction on human sexuality or sexually transmitted infections, the instruction must include instruction concerning consent to sexual activity and a presentation on human growth and development during pregnancy”. The bill also states the following:

… provide an in-person presentation on human growth and development during pregnancy that is medically accurate and age appropriate and includes the following: (A) A high definition ultrasound video, at least three (3) minutes in duration, showing the development of the brain, heart, sex organs, and other vital organs in early fetal development. (B) 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.

The discerning eye will notice that the three-minute duration requirement is only in part A, which pertains to the high definition ultrasound video, not to the computer animation. And yet, Brittany Carloni of the Indianapolis Star inaccurately reported:

SB 442 specifies that human sexuality courses in Indiana must include presentations on “human growth and development during pregnancy,” and states they must be a minimum three-minute, “high-definition” ultrasound video of fetal development and “high quality” computer renderings or animation of the fertilization of egg and stages of the growth of a fetus. …

Again, this claim is false based on the actual language of the bill, which only specifies that the ultrasound video must be at least three minutes in length. And though the law does not mention Live Action’s “Baby Olivia” video, which is a computer animation of a developing child in the womb, Carl0ni of the IndyStar took aim at it (emphasis added):

The language in SB 442 on ultrasound video and fetal development animations does not explicitly describe Live Action’s Baby Olivia video. The bill says that the materials must be “medically accurate and age appropriate.”

But Senate Democrats on April 23 questioned the reasoning behind the specificity of the language in the bill, down to the minimum three-minute timeline. The “Baby Olivia” video is just over three minutes long.  

Democratic Sen. Shelli Yoder asked the author of the bill, Republican Sen. Gary Byrne, if the three-minute time frame was “based on some evidence that you have in terms of what is best practices with high-definition ultrasound videos on length of time?”

A three-minute video is actually completely in line with the suggestions of the Smithsonian Science Education Center, which claims that one of the keys to having an effective science video is to keep the length between two and five minutes.

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

Three minutes is not an incredible length of time for a scientific education video — especially not in light of the fact that pro-abortion groups plan entire days-long camps around teaching children about sex, prostitution, masturbation, drugs and sex, abortion, and trans sex — and groups like SIECUS and Planned Parenthood have pushed for pornography information to be part of sex ed programs. SIECUS, founded by a former Planned Parenthood medical director, “believes that sexually explicit visual, printed, or on-line materials can be valuable educational or personal aids when sensitively used in a manner appropriate to the viewer’s age and developmental level.”

The Star noted that SIECUS (the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States) — while it has no problem with showing pornography and sexually explicit materials to children — has a problem with “anti-abortion extremist” prenatal education that displays videos and ultrasounds showing prenatal development.

As Sen. Byrne made clear, SB 442 would allow school boards in the state to select the videos to be used, and parents would also be allowed to opt students out of the instruction.