{"id":308031,"date":"2024-03-04T16:42:50","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T22:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=308031"},"modified":"2024-03-04T16:01:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T22:01:46","slug":"kentucky-lawmakers-baby-olivia-fetal-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/kentucky-lawmakers-baby-olivia-fetal-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky lawmakers advance ‘Baby Olivia’ bill to require fetal development education"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Members of the Kentucky House advanced a bill<\/a> last week that would require public school students to be shown a fetal development video as part of their health education. The video could be Live Action’s “Baby Olivia,” or something similar.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaby Olivia\u201d uses realistic, digital animation to depict medically-accurate information about the preborn child’s life in the womb, capturing significant growth and development milestones from the moment of fertilization through birth.<\/p>\n

Dubbed the “Baby Olivia Act,” House Bill 346<\/a> requires schools to show<\/a> a \u201chigh-quality, computer-generated rendering or animation showing the process of fertilization and every stage of human development inside the uterus, noting significant markers in cell growth and organ development for every week of pregnancy until birth.\u201d Parents would be given the opportunity to opt their children out of viewing the video if they so choose.<\/p>\n

The bill is being sponsored by Rep. Nancy Tate, R-Brandenburg. Tate told the Herald-Leader<\/a> the the video \u201cis meant to be an addition to science class, (because) it\u2019s really important for children to understand human development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opponents of the bill are criticizing it because they say the Baby Olivia video “humanizes” the preborn child.<\/p>\n

“It’s banking on a lack of education in a general audience,” claimed<\/a> Dr. Miranda Bencomo, a resident physician studying pediatrics. “You are seeing a being reacting to stimulus in the same way in the same way leaves on a tree turn toward sunlight. There are certain things that are trying to make an emotional pull that are not appropriately explained.”<\/p>\n

Of course, it should be obvious that a developing human being is far different and far more complex than a leaf growing on a tree.<\/p>\n