A ban on pelvic, prostate and similar exams on unconscious patients who haven’t given permission needs only the signature of Gov. Josh Shapiro to become law.
The state House and Senate unanimously approved the law, according to a news release from state Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, D-Philadelphia, the author of one of the bills.
If Shapiro signs the bill, Pennsylvania will join about 20 other states that outlaw such exams.
Such exams are typically done by medical students as part of their education. They have long been controversial, with some students over the years saying they were troubled by having to do the exams.
It’s unclear how often they happened in Pennsylvania and at what medical schools and hospitals. Fieldler said she became outraged after hearing from a constituent who had undergone such an exam while under anesthesia and was traumatized by the experience.
In the news release, Republican state Sen. Michele Brooks said she was “stunned to learn that medical students and institutions were able to perform these pelvic, rectal or prostate exams on patients without their knowledge while under anesthesia for unrelated procedures.”
An official of the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network said, “Unauthorized pelvic exams are a gross violation of the privacy and autonomy of patients. … The solution is as simple as requiring a patient’s informed consent prior to the examination, which will prioritize the patient’s comfort, safety and autonomy.”
Some medical schools consider the exams an essential teaching tool, according to an article by PennLive in April focusing on the issue. Students first practice on mannequins and non-patient volunteers. In their final year of medical school, during hospital rotations, they practice on patients, according to the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
The association said the pelvic exam is “a critical tool for the diagnosis of women’s health conditions and remains an important skill necessary for students to master before becoming physicians.”
But the association stressed the need to obtain clear consent from patients, saying exams done on unconscious patients without their permission can be traumatic for both patients and students.
The exams came under scrutiny in 2012, after a medical student wrote an article expressing guilt over performing pelvic exams on anesthetized women who hadn’t been asked for consent, calling it “the first act of medical training that left me ashamed.”
He said he performed such exams 4-5 times per day for three weeks. He said he was required to introduce himself to patients and explain his presence beforehand, but there was no mention he would do a pelvic exam.
He said he spoke to fellow students and found them similarly troubled, and friends outside medicine “were shocked and horrified such a practice existed and considered it an egregious violation of doctor-patient trust.”
