rape on the operating table- learn about non-consensual pelvic exams

Even if you live in a state that has now banned pelvic exams without consent you are still not entitled to any compensation for the trauma you were subjected to, you will receive no justice even though you were by all legal and ethical standards raped, and the doctor who raped you will simply be told not to do it again and will still be allowed to practice medicine.

While stopping this horrid practice from being done to others is an incredibly important thing, ensuring victims receive justice and are compensated should be a priority and something The Wrong Side of the Speculum is looking into.

While getting the practice banned is a good start we belive there should be actual accoutiblity and justice. 

 

What do medical professionals have to say for themselves?

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The medical profession at first remained largely silent on the matter of nonconsenal pelvic exams, and it probaldy would have better if they had stayed that way because thier responses to the outrage and demands for change were extremely disappointing, disheartning, and servered to fruther destroy the public's already almost nonexistent trust in medicine. 

Most doctors saw nothing wrong with performing pelvic exams without consent, and even defended the practice claiming that if they don't use women without consent doctors will not get training on how to perform pelvic exams and what to look for during the exam because not enough women would consent to having a medically unnecessary violation performed under anesthesia if asked. One doctor said in defense of non consenal pelvic exams "If we ask for consent most women would say no and doctors have to learn somehow" and claims "physicians don't view pelvic exams as sexual and so they would never consider it to be sexual assault" showing both a horrifying lack of understanding of consent and of sexual assault. 

the fact that doctors have worked so hard to hide thier little habit of raping patients indicates that they know it's wrong, they know the women do not and would not consent and they simply do not care. Medcine, especially gynecology has a long history of viewing of women as property and disregarding our automnoy and consent as entirely unimportant and irrelevant, and if thier feelings about consent for pelvic exams hasn't made that completely obvious I don't know what will. 

But nobody has taken disgusting entitlement to women's bodies further than the American College of Obstatics and Gynecolgey, who not only vehemently defended non-consensual pelvic exams until conceringly recently, but were also openly pro-pelvic exams without consent and claimed that allowing medical students to use their vagiana's as training dummies is a women's duty. basically implying that if we won't grant student doctors full access to our bodies on demand then we just don't deserve a say in the matter. 

    Until recently the only medical professionals who were speaking out against non-conseunal pelvic exams were medical students who knew what they were doing was wrong and didn't want to become rapists. But when they tried to do the right thing and respect their patient's consent they were punished for refusing to rape their patients. Sometimes even with threats of being expelled from thier programs. 

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How to protect yourself

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The most effective way to ensure you do not have a pelvic exam performed without your consent is to never have surgrey in a state that has not banned the pratice, and never have surgrey at a teaching hospital. 

If you do have to have surgrey in a state that still allows it, do not have surgrey at a teaching hospital, write all over your consent forms that you DO NOT consent to medical students or residents being involved in your care, and under no circumstances do you consent to a pelvic exam that is not medically necessary to your surgery. Tell everyone you talk to you do not consent to a pelvic exam, and if the sugrey isn't on your lower stomach of groin area refuse to remove your underwear or demand to be given surgical garmet underwear and demand that they will not be removed during the surgrey. 

You also may be able to ask for a patient advocate to witness your surgrey and ensure that nothing you don't consent to is done, but make sure the patient advocate is not afflicted with the hospital and works for a third party company or organization.