As Introduced
136th General Assembly
Regular Session H. B. No. 754
2025-2026
Representative Schmidt
To amend sections 313.12, 3705.01, 3705.08, 3705.16, 3705.20, 3705.29, 3727.16, and 4731.82 and to enact sections 3705.161 and 3705.50 of the Revised Code to require the registration of all fetal deaths and to require the filing of a certificate of life after the detection of a fetal heartbeat.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That sections 313.12, 3705.01, 3705.08, 3705.16, 3705.20, 3705.29, 3727.16, and 4731.82 be amended and sections 3705.161 and 3705.50 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:
Sec. 313.12. (A)(1) When any person dies in circumstances as described in division (A)(2) of this section, the physician, certified nurse-midwife, clinical nurse specialist, or certified nurse practitioner called in attendance and any of the following who obtains knowledge thereof arising from the person's duties, shall immediately notify the office of the coroner of the known facts concerning the time, place, manner, and circumstances of the death, and any other information that is required pursuant to sections 313.01 to 313.22 of the Revised Code:
(a) A health care worker caring for the person;
(b) Any member of an ambulance service or emergency squad;
(c) A law enforcement agency.
(2) The notification required by division (A)(1) of this section applies in all of the following circumstances:
(a) When any person, including a product of human conception of at least twenty weeks of gestation, dies as a result of criminal or other violent means, by casualty, by suicide, or in any suspicious or unusual manner;
(b) When any person, including a child under two years of age, dies suddenly when in apparent good health;
(c) When any person with a developmental disability dies regardless of the circumstances.
(3) In the case of a death in circumstances as described in division (A)(2) of this section, if a request is made for cremation, the funeral director called in attendance shall immediately notify the coroner.
(B) As used in this section:
(1) "Developmental disability" has the same meaning as in section 5123.01 of the Revised Code.
(2) "Health care worker" means any individual licensed or otherwise authorized by the state to practice a health care profession and any other individual who provides health-related services in any setting as part of the individual's employment or otherwise for remuneration.
Sec. 3705.01. As used in this chapter:
(A) "Live birth" means the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of human conception that after such expulsion or extraction breathes or shows any other evidence of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached.
(B)(1) "Fetal death" means death prior to the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of human conception, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy, which after such expulsion or extraction does not breathe or show any other evidence of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles. "Fetal death" includes abortion, except that "abortion" does not include any medical services provided for treatment of a spontaneous miscarriage or a stillbirth.
(2) "Stillborn" means that an infant of at least twenty weeks of gestation suffered a fetal death.
(C) "Dead body" means a human body or part of a human body from the condition of which it reasonably may be concluded that death recently occurred.
(D) "Physician" means a person licensed pursuant to Chapter 4731. of the Revised Code to practice medicine or surgery or osteopathic medicine and surgery.
(E) "Attending physician" means the physician in charge of the patient's care for the illness or condition that resulted in death.
(F) "Institution" means any establishment, public or private, that provides medical, surgical, or diagnostic care or treatment, or domiciliary care, to two or more unrelated individuals, or to persons committed by law.
(G) "Funeral director" has the meaning given in section 4717.01 of the Revised Code.
(H) "State registrar" means the head of the office of vital statistics in the department of health.
(I) "Medical certification" means completion of the medical certification portion of the certificate of death or fetal death as to the cause of death or fetal death.
(J) "Final disposition" means the interment, cremation, removal from the state, donation, or other authorized disposition of a dead body or a fetal death.
(K) "Interment" means the final disposition of the remains of a dead body by burial or entombment.
(L) "Cremation" means the reduction to ashes of a dead body.
(M) "Donation" means gift of a dead body to a research institution or medical school.
(N) "System of vital statistics" means the registration, collection, preservation, amendment, and certification of vital records, the collection of other reports required by this chapter, and activities related thereto.
(O) "Vital records" means certificates or reports of birth, death, fetal death, marriage, divorce, dissolution of marriage, annulment, and data related thereto and other documents maintained as required by statute.
(P) "File" means the presentation of vital records for registration by the office of vital statistics.
(Q) "Registration" means the acceptance by the office of vital statistics and the incorporation of vital records into its official records.
(R) "Birth record" means a birth certificate that has been registered with the office of vital statistics; or, if registered prior to March 16, 1989, with the division of vital statistics; or, if registered prior to the establishment of the division of vital statistics, with the department of health or a local registrar.
(S) "Certification of birth" means a document issued by the director of health or state registrar or a local registrar under division (B) of section 3705.23 of the Revised Code.
(T) "Certified nurse-midwife" has the same meaning as in section 4723.01 of the Revised Code.
Sec. 3705.08. (A) The director of health, by rule, shall prescribe the form of records and certificates required by this chapter. Records and certificates shall include the items and information prescribed by the director, including the items recommended by the national center for health statistics of the United States department of health and human services, subject to approval of and modification by the director.
(B) All birth certificates shall include a statement setting forth the names of the child's parents.
(C) All death certificates shall include, in the medical certification portion of the certificate, a space to indicate, if the deceased individual is female and the manner of death is determined to be a suspicious or violent death, whether any of the following conditions apply to the individual:
(1) Not pregnant within the past year;
(2) Pregnant at the time of death;
(3) Not pregnant, but had been pregnant within forty-two days prior to the time of death;
(4) Not pregnant, but had been pregnant within forty-three days to one year prior to the time of death;
(5) Unknown whether pregnant within the past year.
(D)(1)(D)
All fetal death certificates shall include, in the medical
certification portion of the certificate, a space to indicate if the
cause of the fetal death was abortion, spontaneous miscarriage, or
stillbirth.
(E)(1) The director shall prescribe electronic methods and forms for obtaining registration of births, deaths, and other vital statistics in each registration district, and for preserving the records of the office of vital statistics, and no forms or blanks shall be used other than those prescribed by the director.
(2) All birth, fetal death, and death records and certificates shall be certified. Except as provided in division (G) of section 3705.09, section 3705.12, 3705.121, 3705.122, or 3705.124, division (D) of section 3705.15, or section 3705.16 of the Revised Code, a birth certificate requiring signature may be electronically certified by the person in charge of the institution or that person's designee. A death certificate may be electronically certified by the individual who attests to the facts of death.
(3) All vital records shall contain the date received for filing.
(4) Information and signatures required in certificates, records, or reports authorized by this chapter may be filed and registered by photographic, electronic, or other means as prescribed by the director.
Sec.
3705.16. (A)
For purposes of this section
notwithstanding section 3705.01 of the Revised Code,
"fetal
"death"
does not include fetal
death
of the product of human conception prior to twenty weeks of
gestation.
(B)
Each death or
fetal death that
occurs in this state shall be registered with the local registrar of
vital statistics of the district in which the death or
fetal death occurred,
by the funeral director or other person in charge of the final
disposition of the remains. The personal and statistical information
in the death or
fetal death certificate
shall be obtained from the best qualified persons or sources
available, by the funeral director or other person in charge of the
final disposition of the remains. The statement of facts relating to
the disposition of the body and information relative to the armed
services referred to in section 3705.19 of the Revised Code shall be
signed by the funeral director or other person in charge of the final
disposition of the remains.
(C)(1)
For certification of the cause of death, the funeral director or
other person in charge of the final disposition of the remains shall
present the death or
fetal death certificate
to one of the following individuals:
(a)
If a death or
fetal death occurs
under any circumstance described in section 313.12 of the Revised
Code, the coroner in the county in which the death occurs or the
medical examiner;
(b)
If a death or
fetal death occurs
under a circumstance other than as described in section 313.12 of the
Revised Code, the attending physician of the decedent, except that,
in the case of decedent who did not have an attending physician, the
physician who, either in person or through a means of telehealth,
last examined or treated the decedent for any illness or condition.
(2)
After the death or
fetal death certificate
is presented, the cause of death shall be certified and the medical
certificate of death shall be completed and signed as follows:
(a)
If the death or
fetal death certificate
is presented to the coroner or medical examiner, the coroner, or a
deputy coroner, medical examiner, or deputy medical examiner serving
in an equivalent capacity, shall certify the cause of death.
(b)
If the death or
fetal death certificate
is presented to the physician described in division (C)(1)(b) of this
section, that physician shall certify the cause of death.
(3)
The medical certificate of death shall be completed and signed by the
coroner or medical examiner, physician who attended the decedent, or
physician who last examined or treated the decedent, as appropriate,
within forty-eight hours after notification of the death
or fetal death.
A
coroner or medical examiner may satisfy the requirement of signing a
medical certificate showing the cause of death or
fetal death as
pending by signing it within forty-eight hours after notification of
the death
or fetal death,
provided that the coroner or medical examiner shall sign any other
medical certificate of death or supplementary medical certification
within forty-eight hours after the cause of death has been
determined.
A physician described in division (C)(1)(b) of this section may satisfy the requirement of signing a medical certificate by signing with an electronic signature.
(D)
A coroner, medical examiner, or physician who acts in good faith in
accordance with this section, without fraud or malice, and upon
reasonable belief of the cause of death or
fetal death
based on the information, if any, presented is not subject to civil
liability or professional disciplinary action for any act or omission
in certifying the cause of death or in completing and signing the
medical certificate of death.
(E) Any death certificate registered pursuant to this section shall contain the social security number of the decedent, if available. A social security number obtained under this section is a public record under section 149.43 of the Revised Code.
Sec. 3705.161. (A) Each fetal death that occurs in this state shall be registered with the local registrar of vital statistics of the district in which the fetal death occurred.
(B) A fetal death shall be registered by the physician who attended the decedent or the decedent's mother, except that, in the case of a decedent or decedent's mother who did not have an attending physician, the physician who, either in person or through a means of telehealth, last examined or treated the decedent or the decedent's mother for any illness or condition.
(C)(1) The cause of death shall be certified by one of the following individuals:
(a) If a fetal death occurs under a circumstance described in section 313.12 of the Revised Code, the coroner in the county in which the death occurs or the medical examiner.
(b) If a fetal death occurs under a circumstance other than as described in section 313.12 of the Revised Code, the physician who registers the fetal death.
(2) The medical certificate of death shall be completed and signed by the coroner or medical examiner, the physician who attended the decedent of the decedent's mother, or the physician who last examined or treated the decedent or the decedent's mother, as appropriate, within forty-eight hours after notification of the fetal death.
A coroner or medical examiner may satisfy the requirement of signing a medical certificate showing the cause of fetal death as pending by signing it within forty-eight hours after notification of the fetal death, provided that the coroner or medical examiner shall sign any other medical certificate of death or supplementary medical certification within forty-eight hours after the cause of death has been determined.
(D) A coroner, medical examiner, or physician who acts in good faith in accordance with this section, without fraud or malice, and upon reasonable belief of the cause of fetal death based on the information, if any, presented is not subject to civil liability or professional disciplinary action for any act or omission in certifying the cause of death or in completing and signing the medical certificate of death.
Sec.
3705.20. (A)
The
fetal death of the product of human conception of at least twenty
weeks of gestation shall be registered on a fetal death certificate.
On
application of the funeral director or either parent, the fetal death
of the product of human conception prior to twenty weeks of gestation
shall be registered on a fetal death certificate, except that the
fetal death certificate shall not list the cause of death.
The
funeral director or the parent shall include with the application a
copy of the statement required by division (B)(1) of section 3727.16
or division (B)(1) of section 4731.82 of the Revised Code. If the
father submits the application, he shall also include with it a
signed and notarized document from the mother attesting that she
voluntarily provided the father with a copy of the statement.
A fetal death certificate for the product of human conception prior to twenty weeks gestation is not proof of a live birth for purposes of federal, state, and local taxes.
(B) The product of human conception of at least twenty weeks of gestation that suffers a fetal death occurring in Ohio shall not be interred, deposited in a vault or tomb, cremated, or otherwise disposed of by a funeral director or other person until a fetal death certificate or provisional death certificate has been filed with and a burial permit is issued by the local registrar of vital statistics of the registration district in which the fetal death occurs, or the body is found.
A
burial permit for the product of human conception that suffers a
fetal death prior to twenty weeks of gestation shall be issued by the
local registrar of vital statistics of the registration district in
which the fetal death occurs if
upon
request of the
funeral director or either parent files
a fetal death certificate with that registrar.
(C)(1)(C)
The department of health and the local registrar shall keep a
separate record and index record of fetal death certificates.
(2)
The personal or statistical information on the fetal death
certificate shall be obtained by the funeral director or other person
in charge of interment or cremation from the best qualified persons
or sources available.
(D) When a burial permit is issued under division (B) of this section for the product of human conception of at least twenty weeks of gestation that suffers a fetal death, the local registrar shall inform the parent or parents listed on the fetal death certificate or provisional death certificate of the option of applying for a certificate that is issued under division (B)(3) of section 3705.23 of the Revised Code.
Sec. 3705.29. (A) No person shall do any of the following:
(1) Purposely make any false statement in a certificate, record, or report required by this chapter or in an application or amendment of it, or purposely supply false information with the intent that that information be used in the preparation of any such report, record, or certificate, or amendment of it;
(2) Without lawful authority and with intent to deceive, counterfeit, alter, amend, or mutilate any certificate, record, or report required by this chapter or any certified copy of it;
(3) Purposely obtain, possess, use, sell, furnish, or attempt to obtain, possess, use, sell, or furnish to another for the purpose of deception any certificate, record, or report required by this chapter or any certified copy of it, or any certificate, record, or report that is counterfeit, altered, or amended or false in whole or part;
(4) Purposely obtain, possess, use, sell, furnish, or attempt to obtain, possess, use, sell, or furnish to another for the purpose of deception any certificate, record, or report required by this chapter, or any certified copy of it, that relates to the birth of another person, whether living or dead;
(5) Without lawful authority, possess any certificate, record, or report required by this chapter or any copy of such a certificate, record, or report, knowing it to have been stolen or otherwise unlawfully obtained.
(B) No person employed by the office of vital statistics or a local registrar shall purposely furnish or possess a birth record or certified copy of a birth record with intent that it be used for deception.
(C) No person shall do any of the following:
(1) Purposely refuse to provide information required by this chapter or rules adopted under it;
(2) Purposely transport out of this state or accept for interment or other disposition a dead body without a permit required by this chapter;
(3) Knowingly prepare, issue, sell, or give any record or certificate that is alleged to be an original vital record or a certified copy of a vital record if the person knows or has reason to know that it is not an original vital record or a certified copy of a vital record;
(4) Refuse to comply with the requirements of this chapter or violate any of the provisions of this chapter.
(D) No officer or employee of the department of health shall knowingly reveal or provide any information contained in an adoption file maintained by the department under section 3705.12, 3705.121, 3705.122, 3705.123, or 3705.124 of the Revised Code to any person, or knowingly reveal or provide the contents of an adoption file to any person, unless authorized to do so by section 3705.126 of the Revised Code.
(E) If a death, or a fetal death of at least twenty weeks of gestation, occurs under any circumstances mentioned in section 313.12 of the Revised Code, the coroner of the county in which the death or fetal death occurs, or a deputy coroner, medical examiner, or deputy medical examiner serving in an equivalent capacity, shall certify the cause of that death unless the death was reported to the coroner, deputy coroner, medical examiner, or deputy medical examiner and that person, after a preliminary examination, declined to assert jurisdiction with respect to the death or fetal death.
(F) No physician other than the coroner in the county in which a death, or a fetal death of at least twenty weeks of gestation, occurs, or a deputy coroner, medical examiner, or deputy medical examiner serving in an equivalent capacity, may certify any death or fetal death that occurs under any circumstances other than natural or, in the case of a fetal death, as a result of abortion.
(G) If a death, or a fetal death of at least twenty weeks of gestation, occurs under any circumstances mentioned in section 313.12 of the Revised Code, no person shall knowingly present a death or fetal death certificate for the purpose of obtaining certification of the cause of death to any physician other than the coroner in the county in which the death or fetal death occurred, or to a deputy coroner, medical examiner, or deputy medical examiner serving in an equivalent capacity, unless that death or fetal death was reported to the coroner, deputy coroner, medical examiner, or deputy medical examiner and that person, after a preliminary examination, declined to assert jurisdiction with respect to the death or fetal death.
(H) No person, with intent to defraud or knowing that the person is facilitating a fraud, shall do either of the following:
(1) Certify a cause of death in violation of the prohibition of division (E) or (F) of this section;
(2) Obtain or attempt to obtain a certification of the cause of a death or fetal death in violation of the prohibition of division (G) of this section.
Sec. 3705.50. (A)(1) A person who determines the presence of a fetal heartbeat during an examination of a pregnant woman shall prepare and file a certificate of life in the registration district in which the examination occurs within ten calendar days of the examination. The certificate of life shall be registered if it has been completed and filed in accordance with this section.
(2) In addition to filing a certificate of life, a person who determines the presence of a fetal heartbeat during an examination of a pregnant woman shall immediately give the pregnant woman a printed copy of the information to be included on the certificate of life.
(B) Division (A) of this section applies only if the pregnant woman's medical record does not indicate that a certificate of life has already been filed for that pregnancy.
(C) The director of health shall adopt rules as necessary to implement this section, including rules establishing the following:
(1) Information to be included on a certificate of life;
(2) A system that enables a certificate of life to later be matched with a fetal death certificate registered pursuant to section 3705.161 of the Revised Code;
(3) Protocols to avoid redundant filings;
(4) The format in which information shall be printed pursuant to division (A)(2) of this section.
Sec.
3727.16. (A)
As used in this section, "fetal death" has the same meaning
as in section 3705.01 of the Revised Code,
except that it does not include either of the following:
(1)
The product of human conception of at least twenty weeks of
gestation;
(2)
The purposeful termination of a pregnancy, as described in section
2919.11 of the Revised Code.
(B)
If a woman presents herself at a hospital as a result of a fetal
death, the hospital shall provide the woman with all
both
of
the following:
(1) A written statement, not longer than one page in length, that confirms that the woman was pregnant and that she subsequently suffered a miscarriage that resulted in a fetal death;
(2)
Notice
of the right of the woman to apply for a fetal death certificate
pursuant to section 3705.20 of the Revised Code;
(3)
A
short, general description of the hospital's procedures for disposing
of the product of a fetal death.
A
hospital or hospital employee may present the notice and description
required by divisions
division
(B)(2)
and
(B)(3) of
this section through oral or written means. The hospital or hospital
employee shall document in the woman's medical record that all
both
of
the items required by this division were provided to the woman and
shall place in the record a copy of the statement required by
division (B)(1) of this section.
(C) A hospital or hospital employee is immune from civil or criminal liability or professional disciplinary action with regard to any action taken in good faith compliance with this section.
Sec. 4731.82. (A) As used in this section:
(1)
"Fetal death" has the same meaning as in section 3705.01 of
the Revised Code,
except that it does not include either of the following:
(a)
The product of human conception of at least twenty weeks of
gestation;
(b)
The purposeful termination of a pregnancy, as described in section
2919.11 of the Revised Code.
(2) "Physician" means an individual holding a license issued under this chapter to practice medicine and surgery or osteopathic medicine and surgery.
(B)
If a woman in the process of experiencing a fetal death or with the
product of human conception as a result of a fetal death presents
herself to a physician and is not referred to a hospital, the
attending physician shall provide the woman with all
both
of
the following:
(1) A written statement, not longer than one page in length, that confirms that the woman was pregnant and that she subsequently suffered a miscarriage that resulted in a fetal death;
(2)
Notice
of the right of the woman to apply for a fetal death certificate
pursuant to section 3705.20 of the Revised Code;
(3)
A
short, general description of the attending physician's procedures
for disposing of the product of a fetal death.
The
attending physician may present the notice
and description
required by divisions
division
(B)(2)
and
(B)(3) of
this section through oral or written means. The physician shall
document in the woman's medical record that all
both
of
the items required by this division were provided to the woman and
shall place in the record a copy of the statement required by
division (B)(1) of this section.
(C) A physician is immune from civil or criminal liability or professional disciplinary action with regard to any action taken in good faith compliance with this section.
Section 2. That existing sections 313.12, 3705.01, 3705.08, 3705.16, 3705.20, 3705.29, 3727.16, and 4731.82 of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.
Section 3. Section 313.12 of the Revised Code is presented in this act as a composite of the section as amended by both H.B. 497 and S.B. 196 of the 135th General Assembly. The General Assembly, applying the principle stated in division (B) of section 1.52 of the Revised Code that amendments are to be harmonized if reasonably capable of simultaneous operation, finds that the composite is the resulting version of the section in effect prior to the effective date of the section as presented in this act.