Tennessee has grow to be the second state to require faculties to point out college students a video documenting prenatal growth as states proceed to take extensively divergent paths on abortion coverage.
Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Invoice Lee signed Home Invoice 2435 into legislation on April 23. Lee’s approval of the measure follows its passage by the Republican-controlled Tennessee Home of Representatives in a 67-23 vote final month and by the Republican-controlled Tennessee Senate in a 27-6 vote earlier this month. The votes in each chambers got here down alongside occasion strains, with all Republicans supporting the laws and all Democrats opposing it.
The laws requires a “family life curriculum that directly or indirectly addresses human growth, human development, or human sexuality” to “include the presentation of a high-quality, computer-generated animation or high-definition ultrasound of at least three (3) minutes in duration that shows the development of the brain, heart, sex organs, and other vital organs in early fetal development.”
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The invoice instructed utilizing a “high-quality, computer-generated animation developed by Live Action [called ‘Meet Baby Olivia’] that shows the process of fertilization and the stages of human development inside the uterus.” This was only one instance of a video that meets the brand new requirement. The professional-life advocacy group created the video in partnership with “accredited OBGYNS.” Reside Motion President Lila Rosen took to X on Friday to cheer the event.
“This law ensures that over 1 million TN public school students will be taught scientifically accurate information about when life begins using world-class educational materials like Live Action’s Baby Olivia,” she mentioned. “TN joins North Dakota in leading the way in human development education in schools.”
As Rose famous, North Dakota was the primary state to cross a legislation requiring faculties to point out college students a video about fetal growth. The state’s Republican Gov. Doug Burgum signed Home Invoice 1265 into legislation final yr, following its approval in a 37-9 vote by the Republican-controlled North Dakota State Senate and its passage by the Republican-controlled North Dakota Home of Representatives in a 75-16 vote.
The video of “Baby Olivia,” shared by Rose in her X put up concerning the Tennessee legislation, identifies conception as “the moment that life begins,” utilizing a lady named Olivia for instance because it illustrated fetal growth: “At fertilization, her gender, ethnicity, hair color, eye color and countless traits are already determined.”
“She begins to implant in the uterus about one week after fertilization. Her cells organize into what we call an embryo. At three weeks and one day, just 22 days after fertilization, Olivia’s heartbeat can be detected,” the narrator defined. “The buds of her arms and legs appear by four weeks. She begins to move between five and six weeks, with both spontaneous and reflexive movements. At six weeks from fertilization, her brain activity can be recorded and bone formation begins.”
The video provides: “She can bring her hands together at seven-and-a-half weeks and separate fingers and toes emerge. She can also begin to hiccup. At the beginning of the ninth week, Olivia will have grown from a single cell into nearly 1 billion cells and she is now called a fetus. She will suck her thumb and swallow, grasp an object, touch her face, sigh and stretch. At 11 weeks, she is playing in the womb, moving her body and exploring her environment.”
“Her taste bud cells have matured by week 12 but are still scattered throughout her mouth. Her mother will first sense Olivia’s movements between 14 and 18 weeks,” the video provides. “Beginning at 18 weeks, ultrasounds show speaking movements in her voice box.”
After stating that “babies have survived outside the womb” as early as round 20 weeks right into a being pregnant, the video particulars how “at 27 weeks, her eyes are responding to light, she can recognize her parents’ voices and will even recognize lullabies and stories.” The video concludes by citing childbirth because the second the place Olivia’s nine-month “journey” involves an finish.
The passage of Home Invoice 2435 in Tennessee comes as states are taking divergent paths following the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s 2022 determination in Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being Group that dominated the U.S. Structure doesn’t include a proper to abortion.
Republican-led states have tried to advance the reason for the pro-life motion by implementing legal guidelines proscribing abortions to the primary trimester of being pregnant or banning terminations in nearly all circumstances. A few of these states have additionally handed payments designed to make it simpler for girls and households to care for his or her youngsters, comparable to exempting diapers from the state gross sales tax and growing tax credit obtainable for bills associated to adopting youngsters.
Conversely, states led by Democrats have sought to additional the ideology of the pro-abortion motion by increasing abortion protection in Medicaid plans and establishing a proper to abortion. The foremost variations in abortion coverage between states based mostly on which occasion controls the federal government there mirrors the events’ opposing ideologies on the nationwide stage, with Republicans embracing the pro-life place and Democrats supporting the pro-abortion place.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Publish. He will be reached at: [email protected]
“Well bless their hearts.”
