Bill would ban no-consent pelvic, rectal and prostate exams in Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG (KDKA) - State Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler (D-Pennsylvania) says the idea for a bill to ban no-consent pelvic, rectal and prostate exams came from a constituent.  

"She had been a patient – had been under anesthesia for a procedure – and woke up with a strange sensation," Fielder said Thursday. 

The patient asked her doctor what might have happened. 

"'Well, it's possible that a pelvic exam was conducted on you while you were under anesthesia,'" Fiedler said, characterizing the doctor's response as relayed by the constituent. "And she was shocked. And when she told me this story, I have to say I was shocked as well." 

She was shocked that it happened and that – as in 24 other states, according to research by her office – it was perfectly legal in Pennsylvania. 

So Fiedler sponsored a bill to prohibit the practice, which passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Committee on Health by a 20-1 margin. 

"It felt tremendous, and it felt like a real strong bipartisan statement," Fiedler said of the vote. 

Why would pelvic, rectal and prostate examinations – unrelated to the procedures for which patients are under anesthesia – be legal? Because medical students can gain important experience from them, Fiedler said. And she cited research showing many patients are willing to consent to the exams, in order to help populate the world with knowledgeable doctors – if they're asked. 

But the idea of doing the exams without asking? 

"This practice is frankly medieval," State Rep. Arvind Venkat (D-Allegheny County) said Wednesday during the committee hearing where the bill was discussed. Venkat is also a physician. 

If Fiedler's bill becomes law, universities could face a $500 fine for a first violation and a $1,000 fine for subsequent violations. 

In the roughly half of states where they're allowed, how common are the no-consent exams? 

No one knows for sure, but people in the medical community think they were common until recent decades – a 2005 study found most medical students at the University of Oklahoma had performed the exams and many believed they had done so without consent – and have more recently become far less common as awareness and then anger grew. 

Among Pennsylvania's seven medical schools that award MD degrees, Fiedler said the University of Pennsylvania/Penn Medicine and Temple University, both in Philadelphia, have both confirmed to her their students don't perform the exams without consent. Penn State, whose medical school is in Hershey, confirmed separately to CBS News that it has a policy against no-consent exams. 

Penn Medicine confirmed Fiedler's characterization to CBS News, adding its "policy has been in place for many years and serves as a national model for other schools seeking to ensure proper patient privacy protections." A Temple spokesperson said, "We can confirm that we are committed to doing what the bill would require." 

The four other schools – University of Pittsburgh, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in Scranton and Jefferson Medical College and Drexel University, both in Philadelphia, didn't reply by late Thursday to messages left Thursday morning. That doesn't mean students at those schools are necessarily performing the exams without consent, only that the schools haven't confirmed they have policies against doing so. 

The lone committee vote against the bill was by State Rep. Tim Bonner (R-Grove City). Bonner didn't respond Thursday to a request seeking comment and wasn't at Wednesday's hearing, but based on questions he relayed at the hearing via other members, his concerns seemed to center around not whether the no-consent exams should be illegal but on the maximum $1,000 fines for the university hospitals – and whether aspiring doctors could face more liability personally than the deeper-pocketed institutions would face.