INDIANAPOLIS (LifeSiteNews) — Starting in July, Indiana will require public education to include ultrasound videos detailing the humanity of preborn life, which could prove to be key to growing a durable culture of life in the United States.
Enacted in May, SB 442 requires school presentations on human growth and development to include “high definition ultrasound video, at least three (3) minutes in duration, showing the development of the brain, heart, sex organs, and other vital organs in early fetal development”; as well as a “high quality computer generated rendering or animation showing the process of fertilization and each stage of fetal development inside the uterus, noting significant markers in cell growth and organ development for every week of pregnancy from fertilization to birth.”
The law also contains some parental rights measures, including a ban on the use of any curriculum materials on human sexuality that have not been approved by the school’s governing body and a requirement to publish an online list of “any instructional materials, including teachers’ manuals, curricular materials, films or other video materials, tapes, and other materials, used in connection with instruction on human sexuality.”
Long-settled biological criteria and mainstream medical textbooks affirm that a living human being, structurally and genetically distinct from his or her mother, is created upon fertilization and is present throughout the entirety of pregnancy – regardless of whether that embryonic human is being artificially sustained outside of the womb.
This is not in serious dispute; in 2019, University of Chicago Department of Comparative Human Development graduate Steve Jacobs found that 96 percent of more than 5,500 biologists he surveyed agreed, despite overwhelmingly identifying as “liberal,” “pro-choice,” and Democrats, and a majority identifying as “non-religious.”
The dignity of unborn children in the womb is also declared by Sacred Scripture and proclaimed by the Catholic Church.
Despite the unambiguous nature of the facts, however, the United States remains far from a pro-life consensus. While polls consistently show that Americans reject the extremes of the abortion-on-demand lobby, Gallup, Pew, and Marist have all found for the past several years that overall, growing majorities identify as “pro-choice.”
Mandatory fetal development education could play a vital role in reversing that trend, by putting the reality of preborn life before young Americans at a scale far wider than voluntary pro-life activism and outreach can cover.
One such educational resource, Live Action’s “Baby Olivia” video project, has been adopted in four states so far, with 18 other states considering it this year, according to Live Action founder Lila Rose.
