West Virginia Senate OKs bill requiring schools to show anti-abortion group fetal development video

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia’s Republican-majority Senate greenlit a bill on Tuesday that would make a video on fetal development produced by an anti-abortion group required viewing in public schools.

Live Action’s “Baby Olivia” video, which West Virginia lawmakers want to show in eighth and tenth-grade classrooms, has received criticism from physicians and educators who say it misleads viewers. It is already being used in some schools in North Dakota, though it wasn’t specifically mandated in the law passed last year in that state. Similar bills have been proposed in Iowa, Kentucky and Missouri.

The bill now heads to the House of Delegates for consideration.

The animated video is meant to visualize development in the womb, depicting an egg being fertilized and implanted and progressing through embryonic and fetal developments occurring throughout a pregnancy. A voiceover introduces viewers to Olivia as an illustration of a fully developed baby in utero appears on screen. Olivia’s mouth and eyes open and close, and her hands move.

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