Local NBC affiliate WAND recently ran a segment on the common practice of teaching hospitals performing unauthorized pelvic exams on women under anesthesia for unrelated surgeries. Currently, the practice is against the law in six states, including Illinois, but Professor Robin Fretwell Wilson has been working on making the practice illegal across the country for many years.
Wilson does not believe the intent of teaching hospitals is malicious. However, she said consent is either not being given or is not being made explicitly clear.
"This needs to be like the '#MeToo Movement'," Professor Wilson said. "We need to have people saying '#JustAsk'. So I think we need to change the culture of medical education and continually remind ourselves that it's important to ask."
According to Wilson, since this topic has been receiving more national attention as of late, ten bills in favor of ending the practice have been introduced across eight states, with additional states in the process of developing measures.
Watch the full WAND segment.