The GOP has introduced a bill that would require doctors to file something called a “certificate of life” with the state within ten days of detecting a fetal heartbeat. That means the government would have a record of your pregnancy.

And it doesn’t stop there.

If that pregnancy ends, whether it’s a miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, that would also have to be reported to the state, and a cause of death has to be certified within 48 hours.

And if the state — an anti-abortion state, I might add — decides the pregnancy ended in a way that seems “suspicious,” a coroner or medical examiner could get involved.

I have a lot of questions, starting with, “Who decides what’s ‘suspicious’?”

Around 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage. They’re incredibly common and deeply personal.

Most of the time, people don’t even know why a miscarriage happened. Now imagine going through something like that and knowing the government is collecting records about your pregnancy and how it ended.

That’s not healthcare. That’s surveillance.

And this is happening after Ohio voters already passed a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights, which tells you that even when voters make their voices clear, some politicians are still looking for new ways to control reproductive healthcare.

Ohio women celebrating the passage of Issue 1 in 2023

Now this bill will likely face serious legal challenges if it passes. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.

Because bills like this show us exactly what some lawmakers are trying to build: a system where the government monitors pregnancy from beginning to end.

And I think most of us can agree that our pregnancies, our healthcare, and our personal medical decisions should not be part of a government database.

Ohio Republicans Want to Track Your Pregnancy