Ohio bill targets consent rules for fertility clinics

Ohio is pairing a rewrite of its physician-assistant law with a new felony aimed at fertility fraud. The bill would make it a crime for any health care professional to knowingly use human reproductive material during an assisted reproduction procedure without the patient’s express consent. That offense would be called fraudulent assisted reproduction, and a violation would be a third-degree felony.

Consent is the guardrail

The consent rule is the heart of the criminal language. Under the bill, a health care professional who uses human reproductive material from the professional, a donor or another person during an assisted reproduction procedure without express permission from the patient could face a third-degree felony charge.

If the conduct is part of a course of conduct involving other violations, the penalty would rise to a second-degree felony. The language draws a bright line around fertility care: no express consent, no use of the material.

A broader rewrite with a criminal hook

The new offense does not stand alone. The bill also amends Ohio law governing the practice of physician assistants, while keeping physician assistants defined as licensed professionals who work under the supervision, control and direction of one or more physicians.

That makes the proposal more than a technical cleanup of medical licensing rules. It reaches into one of the most sensitive corners of reproductive medicine and gives clinics, patients and other providers a clear legal warning about what conduct is off limits.