Removing a condom without consent could lead to civil damages under California bill

A California Democrat this week introduced legislation to penalize anyone found guilty of “stealthing,” or the sexual act of removing or damaging a condom without a partner’s consent.

California’s civil code already includes sexual battery, or the “intent to cause a harmful or offensive contact” as a punishable violation.

Under Assembly Bill 453, the law would expand to include those who intentionally cause “contact between a penis, from which a condom has been removed, and the intimate part of another who did not verbally consent to the condom being removed.”

The change would allow a victim to pursue a civil lawsuit, but it would not lead to jail time.

It’s a legal amendment Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens, has pursued for five years. Stealthing, Garcia has argued, is a sneaky offense that burdens victims with enduring physical and emotional harm.

“I won’t stop until there is some accountability for those who perpetrate the act,” Garcia said in a prepared statement. “Sexual assaults, especially those on women of color, are perpetually swept under the rug.”

Sexual assault awareness activists and organizations have likened stealthing to assault, and one that could lead to unwanted pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection. A 2017 Columbia Journal of Gender and Law report noted that stealthing is “experienced by many as a grave violation of dignity and autonomy.”

“At the end of the day, stealthing is disrespecting someone’s trust for the other person’s sexual gain,” the National Domestic Violence Hotline’s “love is respect” project includes. “It violates the trust you placed in the other person and the agreement you had with that person to respect each other’s bodies and feelings.”

In 2017, Garcia’s first attempt to crack down on stealthing was killed in a key committee amid opposition from a handful of groups that included the American Civil Liberties Union and the California Right to Life Committee. A bill in 2018 also died.

But after the popular TV show “I May Destroy You” raised awareness on the issue, Garcia said she was recommitted to writing a law that would make clear that “this is a crime.” In the series, the main character is a victim of stealthing.

It’s too early to determine, however, whether the modified legislation will appease lawmakers concerned with clogging the criminal justice system, or groups that that claimed prior versions had unclear legal standing.

In a statement to the Senate Committee on Public Safety, the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice noted that the 2017 bill’s language was “very vague,” and that the legislation didn’t make clear who would be prosecuted if a condom was tampered with.

“It is easy to imagine a case where the person may adjust a condom during sex, with a neutral intent, with an undesired result of accidental insemination,” the statement included.

This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 3:47 PM.