The Colorado state House on Monday advanced legislation that seeks to prohibit intimate medical exams on unconscious patients without their clear consent. 

The measure received unanimous approval in the chamber.

If enacted, House Bill 1077 would prohibit medical providers from performing intimate exams on unconscious patients – including pelvic, prostate, breast and rectal exams – without the patient’s written consent ahead of time except in emergency situations.

“Some patients have woken up from sedation to learn that a non-consensual pelvic, prostate, rectal, or breast exam was performed on them to train medical students,” bill cosponsor Rep. Jenny Willford, D-Northglenn, said in a news release. “We’re putting Colorado patients in the driver’s seat, giving them control over what intimate exams can be conducted on them.”

“Learning of a non consensual intimate exam can force patients to relive some of the worst moments of their life,” added Rep. Lorena Garcia of Adams County, who also coauthored the legislation. “This bill requires a patient’s consent before medical professionals perform intimate exams, protecting patients when they undergo a medical procedure.”

Research shows intimate exams often occur on sedated patients as a way for medical students to practice. A 2019 survey of students from seven American medical schools found that 92% of medical students had performed a pelvic exam on an unconscious female patient, of which 61% said they did not have explicit consent from the patient.

Regional surveys from the early 2000s reached similar conclusions. At the University of Oklahoma, a majority of medical students had performed pelvic exams on unconscious women and nearly 75% of the patients did not consent to the exam. Among medical students in Philadelphia, 90% said they’d performed pelvic exams on unconscious women and they weren’t sure if the women consented.

Twenty-one states have already outlawed performing pelvic exams on unconscious patients without consent, including California, New York and Texas, according to the Epstein Health Law and Policy Program. The American Medical Association has also explicitly disavowed the practice.