According to Ohio law “Fetal death” means “death prior to the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of human conception of at least twenty weeks of gestation.”
A fetal death certificate can be issued by the state if you lose your baby after 20 weeks- which makes sense since that’s right around the time your fetus would be considered “viable” – i.e. able to survive outside the womb.
If Kevin Couglin has his way, “fetal death” is going to be redefined in Ohio to mean ANY “product of human conception”- including that tiny mass of cells that requires a microscope the be seen.
He’s calling it the Grieving Parents Act (SB 175) and it just passed the Senate today 88-6.
Technically, up until the 8th week it’s called an embryo- but hell, why let science get in the way of really bad legislation.
At the end of the day we all know that Coughlin is just trying to establish fetal (or embryonic) personhood hoping that it will eventually lead to women being deprived of their reproductive rights.
Still, I am totally amazed that so many Dems voted for this piece of shit bill. But I suppose it is an election year and no one really wants to go on record as voting against grieving parents.
UPDATE:
Just got info on the votes. Congrats to these State Senators for voting against this ridiculous piece of legislation: Boccieri, Cafaro, Kearney, Miller D, Morano, Smith
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