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(UK) MPs urged to ban 'virginity repair' surgery as well as virginity testing [View all]
Source: The Guardian
MPs urged to ban ‘virginity repair’ surgery as well as virginity testing
Exclusive: abusive practice should also be outlawed in health bill to protect women, say gynaecologists
Hannah Summers
Sat 14 Aug 2021 18.03 BST
The government’s pledge to outlaw virginity testing will be undermined unless fake surgery touted as “virginity repair” is also banned, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has warned.
Last month ministers committed to criminalising the invasive and unscientific “tests” offered by some private clinics to determine whether someone is a virgin through an examination to see if the hymen is intact.
However, there are no plans to ban a procedure the same doctors claim can “restore virginity” by constructing a layer of skin at the entrance to the vagina to create the illusion of an unbroken hymen.
Typically girls and women are forced into the surgery known as “hymenoplasty” by their relatives, who want to present them as a “pure newborn virgin” who will bleed on their wedding night.
In 2020, an investigation by the Sunday Times identified 22 private clinics across the UK charging up to £3,000 for the procedure, which is performed under local anaesthetic. During the course of a year, about 9,000 people in the UK had searched Google for “hymenoplasty” and related terms, it found.
-snip-
Exclusive: abusive practice should also be outlawed in health bill to protect women, say gynaecologists
Hannah Summers
Sat 14 Aug 2021 18.03 BST
The government’s pledge to outlaw virginity testing will be undermined unless fake surgery touted as “virginity repair” is also banned, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has warned.
Last month ministers committed to criminalising the invasive and unscientific “tests” offered by some private clinics to determine whether someone is a virgin through an examination to see if the hymen is intact.
However, there are no plans to ban a procedure the same doctors claim can “restore virginity” by constructing a layer of skin at the entrance to the vagina to create the illusion of an unbroken hymen.
Typically girls and women are forced into the surgery known as “hymenoplasty” by their relatives, who want to present them as a “pure newborn virgin” who will bleed on their wedding night.
In 2020, an investigation by the Sunday Times identified 22 private clinics across the UK charging up to £3,000 for the procedure, which is performed under local anaesthetic. During the course of a year, about 9,000 people in the UK had searched Google for “hymenoplasty” and related terms, it found.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/aug/14/mps-urged-to-ban-virginity-repair-surgery-as-well-as-virginity-testing
2 replies
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