Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville, presents House Bill 1180 to the House Education Committee on Feb. 4, 2025. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
In a split decision Tuesday, an Arkansas House committee approved a bill requiring students to watch a human development video that opponents criticized for being biased and medically inaccurate.
House Bill 1180, the Baby Olivia Act, would require each public school district and open-enrollment public charter school to incorporate a human growth and development discussion into existing health and safety courses beginning in fifth grade.
The discussion must include a high-definition ultrasound video and the “Meet Baby Olivia” video developed by anti-abortion group Live Action that depicts fertilization and stages of in-utero development of a computer-generated fetus.
North Dakota and Tennessee have approved similar bills, while legislation is under consideration in other states like Iowa and Oklahoma.
Arkansas’ bill is sponsored by Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville, who told the House Education Committee Tuesday she was excited after waiting two years to run the bill. Bentley, who earned a nursing degree from Harding University, said the governor and education secretary are neutral on the legislation.
Responding to committee members’ questions about the age-appropriateness of the content, Bentley said fifth grade was a “perfect time” to broach this subject because many girls start their menstrual cycle around that age.
“I have shown this video to my four- and five-year-old grandkids who absolutely love it,” she said. “This is a really fascinating thing. It does not show the procreative act at all. It is simply biology, from the beginning of conception forward so parents can discuss when they want to.”
HB 1180 does not contain specific language about opting out of watching the three-minute video, but Bentley said nothing precludes a parent from exempting their child from the lesson similar to current policy that allows parents to exempt their child from a sex education discussion.
Live Action’s branding is not included in the video, which Bentley said medical professionals helped develop.
Rep. Denise Garner, a Fayetteville Democrat and former oncology nurse, asked what the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) thought about the video. Founded in 1951, ACOG is a professional membership organization for obstetrician-gynecologists that has more than 60,000 members in North and South America, according to its website.
“I don’t agree with a lot of what ACOG says, so I don’t see ACOG as an expert,” Bentley said. “…I’ve not reached out to ACOG. I didn’t see any reason to reach out to ACOG when the experts have already proven it’s been scientific.”
In a statement to CNN following the passage of a similar bill in Tennessee last year, ACOG said the Baby Olivia video is designed to manipulate viewers’ emotions instead of sharing “evidence-based, scientific information about embryonic and fetal development.”
“Many of the claims made in this video are not aligned with scientific fact, but rather reflect the biased and ideologic perspectives of the extremists who created the video,” the statement read. “ACOG is strongly opposed to the spread of misinformation about reproductive health.”
Four people spoke against HB 1180, including Carol Egan, who noted part of the concern about inaccurate information stems from the different timelines used to explain fetal development. While the video measures the length of a pregnancy from fertilization, OBGYNs measure development based on a person’s last menstrual cycle, she said.
Although it’s likely not the intent of the bill, Egan said she appreciated the introduction of human development discussions back into schools in Arkansas, a state with a historically high rate of teenage pregnancy and no required sex education. Because of the latter, Egan said the Baby Olivia video isn’t appropriate for elementary school students because they won’t be familiar with terms like uterus, fertilization or sperm.
“Those little swimming fishes that are introduced at the beginning of the video are going to cause more questions and concerns than I think anybody in the video intended,” she said. “And I don’t know that we’re going to equip our parents to answer those questions if we’re not also going to also teach the larger subject.”
Jimmie Cavin, one of two people who spoke in support of the bill, said he wished he had something like the Baby Olivia video when he was in school.
“All I got was a dead cat we dissected and a frog, which served no purpose to me whatsoever,” Cavin said. “But at almost 63 years of age, I watched a three-minute video that taught me something. And when we talk about age-appropriateness, if you watch that video, I can’t imagine an age that it’s not appropriate for.”
After nearly an hour of discussion, the House Education Committee in a split voice vote approved an amended version of HB 1180 that removed language that would have allowed the state Attorney General to bring a cause of action for injunctive relief and damages for violating the proposed law.
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