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Content warning: this article references sexual assault.
“Hang on, I’m almost finished.”
These are the words that Salt Lake City’s Intermountain Healthcare LDS Hospital patient Ashley Weitz heard after waking up from a pelvic exam she did not consent to.
In fact, Weitz specifically asked for the exam not to be performed, as she is a survivor of sexual abuse and felt uncomfortable with the procedure. Instead, she had been given a sedative and the examination.
On Feb. 17, The New York Times published an exposé on the practice of performing pelvic examinations on non-consenting, anesthetized patients. The article, titled “She Didn’t Want a Pelvic Exam. She Received One Anyway,” details the story of both Weitz and nurse Janine, who also received a pelvic exam despite explicitly telling her doctor she preferred that medical students were not present, and never consented to the examination. Janine did not provide her last name.
Believing she was receiving abdominal surgery, Janine awoke to find that not only had she undergone a pelvic exam in addition to her stomach surgery, but a resident had also been present in the operating room. The medical team’s reasoning behind the exam was the discovery that she was due for a Pap smear.
Like Weitz, Janine has a history of sexual abuse; this made what was already a highly disconcerting experience even more unnerving.
According to The New York Times, the number of nonconsensual pelvic exams has not been recorded. However, in a survey mentioned by the Times, medical students at the University of Oklahoma admitted that as many as three out of every four pelvic exams they performed on unconscious patients were nonconsensual. According to Vice, the practice is currently legal in 42 states.
This practice, although widely used, is not something the majority of the general public was aware of.
Sarah Painting ’20 was unaware of the practice. “I was shocked when I learned this was a practice! I hope it can become more of a conversation,” she said.
Gabrielle Kerbel ’20 concurred. “I had no idea and I find the situation horrifying. It shouldn’t be legal to perform medical exams on people who haven’t consented.”
Massachusetts Senator Jo Comerford is currently making the practice a larger conversation in Massachusetts with her bill H.4265: An Act to Assure Informed Consent for Pelvic Examinations of Anesthetized or Unconscious Patients. According to Senator Comerford’s legislative director Brian Rosman, a hearing for the bill was held on Sept. 24, where Comerford made remarks on the issue of breaching patient trust.
“As patients we give great trust to the medical community and believe in their ultimate ability to treat our illnesses. With that trust comes the expectation for providers to always act in our best interest and with our consent,” Comerford said. “Having quality medical education is important for ensuring we have access to competent and compassionate care providers, but that education should never come at the expense of the patient.”
According to Rosman, the bill is currently before the Health Care Financing Committee, which oversees bills to do with funding hospitals, insurers, health care spending and doctors.
Mount Holyoke Professor of anthropology Lynn Morgan admonished the practice and commended Senator Comerford’s work.
“Unauthorized pelvic exams performed on women under anesthesia are a serious and unethical violation of bodily autonomy,” Morgan said. “It’s shocking to hear that such behavior is permitted at all, and I’m glad that western Massachusetts State Representatives Jo Comerford and Mindy Domb have introduced legislation to ban the practice.”
A professor of medical anthropology with an area of interest in reproductive rights and abortion access, Morgan herself recently worked to pass the S.1209: Remove Obstacles and Expand Abortion Access (R.O.E.) bill in Amherst, MA. According to MassLive, at the July 22 Amherst Town Council, the bill received a unanimous vote in support of removing obstacles and expanding access to abortion in the town of Amherst, the state and the nation.
If Senator Comerford’s bill passes in MA, patients who are undergoing anesthesia, or who are in any way unconscious, must consent to a pelvic exam before undergoing the procedure. With pelvic examinations illegal in only 10 states, the issue will continue to be controversial on a national scale.