West Virginia Senate Votes To Expose Children To Ridiculous Anti-Abortion Propaganda
Brought to you by Lila Rose and 'Live Action.'
The West Virginia state Senate approved a bill this week that would require schools to show a scientifically inaccurate “fetal development” video made by the far-right anti-abortion group Live Action, in hopes of brainwashing 8th and 10th graders into becoming anti-choice zealots.
It’s called the “Baby Olivia” bill, and just like so many other bills named after white women, its entire purpose is the erosion of civil liberties. Well, technically, Olivia is the name of the imaginary fetus, but the point stands.
Via NPR:
The video is produced by Live Action, an anti-abortion rights advocacy group that produces media content. It begins by showing a sperm and egg meeting, followed by a flash of light and a narrator saying, "this is where life begins, a new human being has come into existence." […]
Live Action says the video uses animation to portray the "miracles of early fetal development as an education tool." But the video has come under criticism by legislators and advocacy groups over questions of medical accuracy and whether it's appropriate to show to students.
Lila Rose, the founder of Live Action, says the video was made with a team of medical experts from the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetrics and Gynecology.
"This is when we date the beginning of human life. So it's not, like, an opinion. It's not a belief. It's a scientific fact," Rose told NPR.
It is, in fact just like an opinion or belief, in that it is one. It has the potential to become a human life, but so do the sperm and egg.
The actual American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology opposes the video, as they think it’s kind of important to give students accurate information about fetal development instead of a ridiculous cartoon that we can assume is far less scientifically accurate than Walt Disney’s The Story of Menstruation (1946) or the “Reproduction” number from Grease 2, and that was technically about flowers.
"Like much anti-abortion misinformation, the 'Baby Olivia' video is designed to manipulate the emotions of viewers rather than to share evidence-based, scientific information about embryonic and fetal development," a representative told NPR in an email. "Many of the claims made in this video are not aligned with scientific fact, but rather reflect the biased and ideological perspectives of the extremists who created the video."
West Virginia is required to teach sex education, but it’s not required to teach comprehensive sex education — and its teachers are required to teach “abstinence.” So it is quite possible that many of those who will be watching this program may still think a stork is somehow involved in this.
Everything else aside, children should be able to count on the information they learn in school, and should be able to trust that it is based in facts rather than propaganda. I realize that’s sort of a lost cause to some degree in states where Republicans have a certain amount of control, but that doesn’t make it okay to screw with children’s heads in this way. Sure, some of them may, somehow, never find out that it’s a lie, but those who do will be unable to trust their teachers and other things they learn in school.
Incredibly, two Republicans made some pretty decent arguments against the bill.
GOP state majority leader Sen. Tom Takubo said he would not vote for the bill because there is information in the video he said is "grossly inaccurate."
"If we're going to codify something that we're going to teach as fact, it needs to be fact and therefore, we've codified a video that is not factual," said Takubo, who is also a practicing pulmonologist. […]
GOP state Sen. Charles Trump agreed that although he personally agrees that life begins at conception, he thinks "it is an imposition of what is fundamentally a religious or spiritual belief. I don't think it is a matter of proven or established science."
Apparently no one has told this Trump that imposing religious beliefs on people is more or less the entire Republican platform these days.
Despite those two Republicans and all Democrats voting against the bill, it did pass the Republican supermajority Senate and will head to the House for another vote — and, most likely, will end up becoming law.
Perhaps next they will require science classes to teach the children all about how it is definitely possible for a human being to turn into a pillar of salt or give birth without ever having had sex.
PREVIOUSLY:
It's strange that the people who will argue that teaching abstinence keeps you from unwanted pregnancy will object to the idea that keeping someone from having a gun will prevent them from shooting anyone.
In the 60's, we had sex ed. It was basically, don't have sex, because if you're a girl, your life is ruined, forever, the shame sticking to you forever.
Not the guy....he was never shamed. His life was never ruined.
Still, when it got to talking about menstruation, my science teacher called it "the weeping of a disappointed womb ". 1964. I was 11 years old, and was so upset that I was making my womb sad by having a period.
That's what putting religion and scientific inaccuracy in place of actual science does.
As for religion, I suggest these Bible thumpers quit thumping the Bible, and actually study what it says about when life begins. (It's when breath is drawn, so life, according to the Bible, doesn't actually begin til actual breath is drawn)