Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has signed another 21 bills into law, one of them being Democratic Senator Lauren Book’s SB 698, a measure that requires that the Florida Department of Health “suspend the license of certain health care practitioners under certain circumstances” who perform pelvic exams on a patient without getting consent first.
Earlier this year, Sen. Book told The Floridian that this was a very common practice within the medical community, adding that “women should give express consent” before they undergo an exam that carries “no medical benefit” to them.
Book’s bill establishes “the criminal offense of reproductive battery.”
In a statement shortly after DeSantis signed her bill, Book stated that women will now be “protected from a group of predatory physicians who commit selfish narcissistic acts”
“The signing of this bill into law is a victory in the fight for women to have control over their own bodies. Women seeking fertility treatment in Florida will now be protected from a group of predatory physicians who commit selfish narcissistic acts; and pelvic exams will now require specific consent, except in cases of emergency, finally halting the wholly inappropriate practice of unapproved pelvic exams on unconscious women… where at best, these exams have been wrongful learning experiences for medical students or at worst, the equivalent of a sexual assault.”
