California Becomes First State to Make 'Stealthing' or Secretly Removing Condom During Sex Illegal
A young woman spills red ink simulating blood on the side of a woman's shoe and a condom during a protest march in Acarigua, Venezuela, on February 27, 2021, demanding security and justice just days after after three young women were murdered in different places in the state of Portuguesa. YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images

After California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill against nonconsensual condom removal during sex, the state became the first state in the U.S. to make "stealthing" a civil sexual battery offense.

The term "stealthing," is a slang term for the nonconsensual removal of a condom during sex, and California was the first state to prohibit it.

California Against Nonconsensual Condom Removal

According to Reuters, Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, the bill's sponsor, said in a statement that the bill passed the Senate and the Assembly a month ago without any opposition.

Signed by Newsom on Thursday, the bill made "stealthing " a civil offense under California law. There would be an offense once an individual removes a condom without their partner's consent during intercourse.

Anti-Stealthing Law in California

According to Garcia, the majority of the people considered the act immoral, and it should be illegal, NPR reported.

The comments from a lot of individuals regarding stealthing prompted Garcia to sponsor the legislation. She said she could not believe that none in the U.S. considered it illegal.

Moreover, Garcia noted that she was motivated to write a bill to ban the practice after reading the law journal article of law student Alexandra Brodsky on the topic in 2017, which has since been credited with kick-starting a broader discussion on stealthing.

Brodsky, who is now a civil rights attorney and the author of the book "Sexual Justice," said that only a few people were talking openly regarding the nonconsensual condom removal at the time.

She noted that the victims faced additional scrutiny because stealthing starts with consensual sex. Brodsky said that stealthing was not only a violation in itself, but it also posed the risk of an unplanned pregnancy, and it could lead to the transmission of a sexually transmitted infection.

Brodsky told NPR that the experience of realizing that your partner or sexual partner has no concern for "your autonomy, your individual dignity, your right to make decisions about who you have sex with, when and how was a terrible violation" regardless of whether a physical injury or a pregnancy occurs.

According to Brodsky, a small number of sexual assault cases brought to police had gone to court. She added that a lot of victims do not want to involve law enforcement and do not want to see the person who hurt them in prison.

With the new law, people in California who experienced stealthing can sue the perpetrators directly in civil court if they choose to.

A 2018 survey among patients at a sexual health clinic in Melbourne, Australia found that 32 percent of women have experienced stealthing. Aside from women, 19 percent of their male patients who have sex with men had experienced stealthing as well.

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Jess Smith

WATCH: 'Stealthing': California Makes it Illegal to Remove Condom Without Consent During Intercourse - From ABC7