Ohio bill would grant legal personhood at conception

By Farah Siddiqi

By Savana Capp / Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi reporting for the Kent State NewsLab-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

The Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act, if passed, would assign personhood at conception, giving fertilized eggs the same civil and criminal protections as “born” people, therefore making abortion homicide, as well as targeting certain forms of contraception and IVF.

House Bill 370, sponsored by representatives Levi Dean (R-Xenia) and Johnathan Newman (R-Troy), was introduced in the House in June. Its intent is “to acknowledge the sanctity of innocent human life, created in the image of God, which should be equally protected from the beginning of biological development to natural death” and “to entirely abolish abortion in this state.”

font-weight: 400;">Currently, 17 states have established fetal rights, either by laws similar to HB 370, or judicial decisions. In these states, fetuses (as well as embryos and fertilized eggs in some cases) have the same status and legal rights as born people.

Despite the passage of Issue 1 in 2023 by nearly 57% of voters, more abortion bills are being introduced in Ohio, said Danielle Firsich, director of public policy for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio and Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio.

“They keep introducing bills that they hope can challenge Issue 1 or work around Issue 1, or could at least get a lawsuit up before the Ohio Supreme Court that they know has a 6-1 conservative, anti-abortion majority,” Firsich said. “They are hopeful that that court may be amenable to their anti-abortion arguments because they get the final say in how Issue 1 is interpreted.”

Issue 1 gave Ohio citizens the right to make reproductive decisions, including abortion, which would make HB 370 unconstitutional, Firsich said. However, anti-abortion groups, such as the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, said Issue 1 should be treated as "null and void” as it contradicts the U.S. Constitution.

“Article 1, Section 22 of Ohio’s Constitution, which was adopted by popular vote in 2023, has created an obvious conflict between the Ohio Constitution and the U.S. Constitution," Rep. Newman said in a release.

Neither Rep. Dean nor Rep. Newman responded to requests for comment.

Austin Beigel, president of End Abortion Ohio, said HB 370 applies the law equally in accordance with the Fourteenth Amendment of the constitution that no person may be deprived of life without due process.

“It’s important because there is a great injustice going on right now where the law is discriminating against certain groups of humans based on their physical qualities,” Beigel said. “We understand people are going to be angry that they are losing the right to murder another human being.We understand that some people desire to do that to other people for their own personal gain.”

The bill is not only controversial between abortion rights and anit-abortion groups, but among anti-abortion groups as well.

“It has kind of caused a civil war in the anti-abortion movement within itself because there’s a huge group of organizations, mostly led by National Right to Life, that don’t actually want to abolish abortion,” he said. “They want to regulate abortion and make it safer, essentially taking the old Democrat position of safe, legal and rare, while there are another half of this anti-abortion movement that does consider it murder.”

While the bill is being pushed by End Abortion Ohio, it is not being supported by Ohio Right to Life or Center for Christian Virtues, two of the "staunchest anti-abortion lobbying groups,” Firsich said.

In a CCV study, 30% of Ohioans who believe life begins at conception voted for Issue 1.

Along with treating abortion as “prenatal homicide,” some aspects of in vitro fertilization and certain long-acting forms of birth control might collapse under this legislation. While the bill doesn’t directly address IVF or ban the conception of a new human being in vitro, it would ban selective fetal reduction.

“So yes, it is banning certain aspects of IVF that are abominable, but it’s not going to actually ban the conception of those human beings,” Beigel said. “It will change the industry, absolutely, but we say it'll change it for the good.”

IVF has a lot of support across the country according to a study from the Pew Research Center. Over two-thirds of Americans think access to IVF is a good thing.

Along with the support for reproductive healthcare in Ohio, anti-abortion bills tend to exacerbate maternal and infant mortality rates. Ohio has the sixth highest rate of maternal mortality in the country. The rate for all women is 71.9 deaths for every 10,000 live births, and the rate is 112.2 for Black women compared to 60.5 and 67 for white and Hispanic women respectively.

“These lawmakers are not experts whatsoever, in the science or the medical fact behind these cases, and they often write bills that have no exceptions,” Firsich said.

Despite consistent support for reproductive health care among not only Americans but Ohioans, Firsich said many lawmakers use this type of legislation as messaging bills, to show that they are still fighting.

“A lot of the point in a lot of these movements, these anit-abrtion movements, is to confuse and exhaust you into submission,” Firsich said. “You have to continue showing up despite those being two persistent factors in this moment because we have to be proactive in our advocacy to continue to protect these rights. They are not set in stone and that’s exactly what we saw with the fall of Roe v. Wade.”

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.