DES MOINES, Iowa [WHO-TV]— An Iowa Senate subcommittee advanced a bill through on Tuesday that would set pregnancy and fetal development curriculum, but not without changes. The Iowa House passed through House File 2617 at the end of February. And just a couple of weeks later the Iowa Senate is amending the legislation. The original bill required health education curriculum to include “a high-quality, computer generated rendering or animation, comparable to Meet Baby Olivia video developed by live action”.

The amendment would remove only the portion comparing a video to Meet Baby Olivia. But there will be some type of video that shows pregnancy from conception until birth. Several different lobbyists were grateful that the reference to the video was taken out. But there was concern from educational groups that this bill is too specific, and it doesn’t give school districts enough flexibility. School boards and curriculum committees will take direction from lawmakers, set the standards and then each school district decides how to meet the standard.

The bill with the amendment will need to make it through the Iowa Senate education committee to be safe from this session’s second funnel deadline on Friday.