A shocking invasive practice is taking place around the country and no one seems to be talking about it.
A bizarre training for med students instructs them to perform transvaginal pelvic exams on unconscious women.
And even more horrifying… it is legal in 42 states.
Yes, med students are able to legally perform a transvaginal pelvic exam on unconscious women, without their consent.
The details of these pelvic exams include inserting two gloved fingers inside a woman’s vagina (while she is unconscious) and applying pressure to her stomach to feel her internal cervix, ovaries, and uterus.
Which means a woman going in for surgery for an item completely unrelated to her pelvis could be unconsciously violated in the name of “practice” without her knowledge.
This happens to women all over the country and they wake up never knowing what happened.
Except that isn’t always the case.
One woman, a previous rape victim woke up right in the middle of the exam and screamed out in terror.
Vice reported:
“In 2007, Ashley Weitz was admitted to the hospital in Utah for extreme nausea, and her doctor anesthetized her when other treatments weren’t working. Weitz, who is a rape survivor, woke up to find the doctor examining her genitals, and began screaming. But it wasn’t until years later, when she learned about the movement against unauthorized pelvic exams, that she realized it was ethically wrong. “Not only did this feel like a violation, it absolutely was a violation,” Weitz said”.
A rape survivor should not have to be retraumatized while in the hospital.
After news of what was happening to women went public – proponents of this practice still defended their “right” to exam an unconscious woman without her consent.
The University of Maryland Journal of Health Care Law and Policy issued a paper titled “Pelvic Examination Under Anesthesia: An Important Teaching Tool” which defended the practice of violating a woman with phrases like:
“When a patient is under general or regional anesthesia, there is a total relaxation of the abdominal and pelvic cavity. Therefore, they can be quite difficult to assess, particularly with a conscious patient.”
So because a woman is more “relaxed” – translated better as unconscious – this means med students have the right to violate her without her consent?
This has got to stop.
No woman should have to fear having her body used and fondled by med students while she is unconscious.
It’s inhumane.
As Scary Mommy put it perfectly:
“In any other situation, touching an individual without their consent while they are unconscious would be assault. This is no different, and it seems teaching methods such as these only allow future medical professionals to dehumanize and dissociate a human’s life from the body which is laying on the operating table.”
Do you think med students have the right to perform a transvaginal pelvic exam on a woman without her consent?
Why do you think this practice is still illegal in 42 states?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
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