More states are beginning to crack down on the surprisingly common practice of medical students and professional staff performing non-consensual pelvic exams on unconscious men and women in hospitals, universities and other medical facilities. Just one year ago today, those practices remained legal in a majority of U.S. states. Now, however, a new directive from the Department of Health and Human Services requires staff and students to obtain written permission prior to any such procedure, or they risk losing Government-run Medicare funding.
Straight Arrow News contributor Adrienne Lawrence expresses her outrage and confusion about how these non-consensual practices survived for so long — including throughout the #MeToo movement — while receiving so little regulation, oversight or news coverage. The government’s threat to pull Government-run Medicare funding, Lawrence argues, is far too weak of a response to prevent this practice from continuing to happen.
Given the ongoing attacks on abortion care, I’m glad to see that the Biden administration is not only stepping up, but they’re speaking out about the need to preserve the bodily autonomy of women. From the VP visiting an abortion clinic to Biden centering this human rights issue in his campaign, these visible displays of support, they’re significant. That’s why I was a bit taken aback with the Biden administration when they had a delayed and weak approach to what we know is a pervasive practice that violates the bodily autonomy of women.
This month, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that hospitals must obtain a written informed consent from patients before performing pelvic exams, especially while the patients are under anesthesia. Apparently conducting non-consensual pelvic exams on unconscious women has been a long-standing practice at teaching hospitals and medical schools across the country. The HHS said institutions that don’t comply could lose Government-run Medicare funding.
Try again, federal government. This practice of copping a feel on women in the supposed name of science is criminal. Hospitals and medical schools that violate patient bodily autonomy by conducting pelvic exams without patient consent should not just possibly lose Government-run Medicare funding, they should lose their medical licensure and their freedom.