A newly introduced Ohio House bill would require medical professionals to file government paperwork documenting pregnancies as early as the detection of a fetal heartbeat — a proposal reproductive rights advocates say amounts to state surveillance of pregnancy outcomes.
House Bill 754, introduced earlier this month by Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland), would create a new vital record called a “certificate of life” that must be filed with local vital statistics offices within 10 days of a medical professional detecting a fetal heartbeat during an examination. The pregnant patient would also receive a printed copy of the certificate.
The bill would also mandate registration of all fetal deaths with local vital statistics, regardless of gestational age. Under current Ohio law, fetal death certificates are only required after 20 weeks of gestation. HB 754 would eliminate that threshold and require fetal death certificates to document whether the cause was an induced abortion, a spontaneous miscarriage, or a stillbirth.
Schmidt, who previously served as president of Cincinnati Right to Life and currently chairs the Ohio House Health Committee, framed the bill as an acknowledgment of life before birth.
“Life begins in the womb, and we must acknowledge that,” Schmidt stated in a press release announcing the legislation.
Schmidt told the Cincinnati Enquirer she introduced the bill after speaking with a constituent who wanted his children’s lives acknowledged before a birth certificate was issued, and with a relative who experienced multiple miscarriages.
Under the bill’s provisions, if a fetal death occurs under circumstances Ohio law considers violent, suspicious, or unusual, a coroner or medical examiner would be required to certify the cause of death. The bill does not define what constitutes a “suspicious” fetal death, a gap that critics say could invite scrutiny of routine pregnancy losses.
Reproductive rights advocates pushed back sharply.
“Ohioans experiencing pregnancy loss deserve compassion, not investigations and accusations,” said Jaime Miracle of Abortion Forward.
Critics argue the bill would create an infrastructure for tracking how every pregnancy ends — and who ends it — raising privacy concerns for patients who may prefer to grieve without government documentation of their loss.
The bill also arrives amid ongoing legal battles over Ohio’s reproductive rights landscape. In 2023, Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment with 57% support enshrining the right to make reproductive decisions, including abortion, into the state constitution. The amendment prohibits the state from directly or indirectly burdening, penalizing, or interfering with that right.
Despite that voter mandate, Republican lawmakers in Ohio’s GOP supermajority legislature have continued introducing bills aimed at regulating abortion access and expanding legal recognition of fetal life. Those efforts have included a “personhood” bill (HB 370) that would extend 14th Amendment protections to “preborn persons,” and multiple measures seeking to impose additional requirements on abortion providers.
Just last month, an Ohio appeals court permanently blocked a state law that would have required burial or cremation of fetal remains from surgical abortions, ruling it conflicted with the 2023 constitutional amendment.
HB 754 was referred to the House General Government Committee on March 18. It has no co-sponsors. Ohio Right to Life executive director Carrie Snyder said the organization is reviewing the bill but “looks forward to working with the sponsors,” according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Schmidt did not respond to requests for comment from NBC4.
