Use of Fetal Development Video Must Stops

By: Micah Harwood, former Fargo Public Schools Student

March 30, 2024

I am a former student of Fargo Public Schools and so I am aware of a lot of internal problems that need to be addressed. However, I will gloss over those for the sole reason of having this specific issue addressed.

Fargo Public Schools are showing a video to students titled “A Never Before Seen Look At Human Life In The Womb | Baby Olivia.” First, it’s a “never before seen look” because it is not real. It is CGI. I would think that if students are discredited and disciplined for using CGI, AI, and other forms of intelligence, the staff would also not use it within their curriculum.

The Baby Olivia video is 3 minutes of propaganda. I use the word propaganda because the video was produced and uploaded by Live Action, a self-proclaimed anti-abortion organization. Propaganda is defined as “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.”

I also think it is interesting that when asked about the video by KVRR local news, Fargo Public Schools declined to speak. If you are putting something in the curriculum, you should have no problem answering when asked about it.

Abortion is a highly sensitive subject that deserves to be treated as such, especially within the classroom. Parents send their kids to school to learn, not to be indoctrinated. This criticism is not just because this specific video is discouraging abortion, all of this would be the same for a video encouraging abortion as well. It is about what is appropriate to show children within their classroom walls.

While I think it is important that we have sex education and that boys and girls alike should learn about fetal development, we need to do so in a proper manner. The North Dakota law, that was written by Live Action so their video would be used in schools, states schools must show a “high-definition ultrasound video, at least three minutes long, showing development of the brain, heart and organs in early fetal growth, and a high-quality, computer-generated animation showing fertilization and every stage of human development inside the uterus.”

If the staff at FPS are having a hard time finding an alternate and unbiased video to show here are some options: “Pregnancy 101” by National Geographic, “Life Before Birth – In the Womb” by National Geographic, or “Ultimate Guide to Pregnancy” by Discovery Life. I also believe that if the birthing video continues to be shown to students it should be an updated version with our current technology, but that’s a discussion for another time.