Comment on Wisconsin and California lawmakers take aim at 'stealthing'

Wisconsin and California lawmakers take aim at 'stealthing'

Wisconsin state Rep. Melissa Sargent and California state Rep. Cristina Garcia both say exposing partners to the risk of a sexually transmitted disease or an unwanted pregnancy without their knowledge amounts to sexual assault and should be treated as such under the law. The bill would require sexual partners to consent to removing condoms or any other physical device intended to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection. Sargent said she'd been familiar with the concept of stealthing for years, but didn't know there was a word for it until reading an April article in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law by then-law student Alexandra Brodsky that described the practice and considered possible legal remedies. Garcia's spokeswoman, Teala Scheff, said Garcia herself had been a victim of stealthing years ago but hadn't realized she could take action to prevent it from happening to other people until she saw recent media reports describing the practice. Sara McGovern, a spokeswoman for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, which operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline, said they've received calls about stealthing but do not track calls by topic and have no data on the frequency or timespan of such calls.

 

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