Enact the Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act

H. B. No. 370 IN

As Introduced

CORRECTED
BY SPONSORS

136th
General Assembly

Regular
Session
H. B. No. 370

2025-2026

Representatives Dean, Newman

Cosponsors: Representatives McClain,
Barhorst, Gross, Mullins, Ritter, Hall, T.

A
BILL

To
enact sections 2903.24 and 2903.241 of the Revised Code
to
enact the Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act.

BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:

Section
1.
That
sections 2903.24 and 2903.241 of the Revised Code be enacted to read
as follows:

Sec.
2903.24.
The
following is the intent of the general assembly in enacting this
section and section 2903.241 of the Revised Code:

(A)
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;

(B)
To acknowledge the United States Constitution as overriding anything
in the Ohio Constitution contrary to it, as it provides in Article
VI, Clause 2, "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United
States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof...shall be the
supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound
thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the
Contrary notwithstanding";

(C)
To follow the Constitution of the United States, which requires in
Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment that "[n]o state
shall...deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws";

(D)
To fulfill that constitutional requirement by protecting the lives of
preborn persons with the same criminal and civil laws protecting the
lives of born persons by repealing provisions that permit willful
prenatal homicide or assault;

(E)
To protect pregnant mothers from being pressured to abort by
repealing provisions that may otherwise allow a person to direct,
advise, encourage, or solicit a mother to abort her child;

(F)
To ensure that all persons potentially subject to such laws are
entitled to due process protections;

(G)
Therefore, to entirely abolish abortion in this state.

Sec.
2903.241.
(A)
As used in this chapter and notwithstanding section 2901.01 of the
Revised Code or any other provision of law, "person" or
"another" includes an individual living human child before
birth from the beginning of biological development at the moment of
fertilization upon the fusion of a human spermatozoon with a human
ovum.

(B)
Enforcement pursuant to this section is subject to the same
presumptions, defenses, justifications, immunities, clemencies, and
other due process protections that would apply to the homicide or
assault of a person who had been born alive.

(C)
Nothing in this chapter shall apply to the unintentional death of an
unborn child when such death results from either of the following:

(1)
The undertaking of life-saving procedures on a pregnant woman when
such procedures are accompanied by reasonable steps, if available, to
save the life of her unborn child;

(2)
A spontaneous miscarriage.

(D)
The common law defense of duress is a valid defense to homicide where
the victim is an unborn child and the defendant is the child's mother
if the defendant is the object of the threat and the elements of
duress otherwise exist.

(E)
The provisions of this section shall be in addition to any other
provisions relating to the death or injury of an unborn child, and
this section prevails over other law to the extent of any conflict.

Section
2.
This
act shall be known as the Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act.