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If you believe you’ve been sexually assaulted by your doctor, contact us now.
Doctor Sexual Assault Lawsuit
What Is Doctor Sexual Assault?
The first few headlines on the subject seemed like one-offs busting rogue predator doctors who betrayed patients’ trust and, even worse, got away with it, despite numerous patient complaints to higher ups at prominent medical facilities. Now, mounting doctor sexual assault cases are becoming frightfully commonplace.
“With medical professionals, there’s often a legitimate reason for why their hands are on your body. There’s a gray area and the minute you step into their office they have power over you.”
– survivor Marissa Hoechstetter1
Most survivors are females treated by male doctors, but knowing if your doctor violated you under the pretense of medical treatment can be confusing because doctor sexual assault has so many faces. Whatever happened to you on the examining table, if it felt creepy or made you queasy, it was probably assault.
If you believe you were sexually assaulted by your doctor, please reach out to us to pursue civil legal action.
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How Do I Know if I Was Assaulted By My Doctor?
More than anything, we believe your gut instinct is the best indicator for determining egregious misconduct. Many women, though, wonder whether to doubt or suppress their feelings about such surely-not scenarios. Repeat: If the way your doctor touched you or spoke to you felt “off” (slightly or very), it likely was.
The NIH (National Institutes of Health) has warned that professional sexual misconduct (synonymous with sexual boundary violation), is a severe problem in the healthcare system.
Physician sexual assault, as defined by the NIH, is “any action of a sexual nature that oversteps or disregards ethical or legal limits of professional behavior, including erotic physical contact and sexual behavior involving language, gesture, the use of sexual humor, or informal inappropriate speech.”2
“Betrayal and exploitation are among the most egregious of human offenses, and when they involve a health professional preying on a vulnerable patient, the most basic of ethical principles are violated.”
What Esteemed Sources Have Probed This Troubling Topic?
Esquire published a groundbreaking exposé back in 2016 about doctor sexual assault, defining it in no uncertain terms (trigger warning) as “fondling, exposure, masturbation, and [ultimately] rape, among other offenses.”3
The Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence said in 2021: “The vast majority of physicians in the United States do not commit or condone sexual violence; however, perpetrators exist in every profession and the true prevalence of sexual assault committed by physicians against their patients is difficult to discern due to a lack of current, readily accessible research on the issue.”4
MDLinx published a seminal article in 2023, observing that “victims of physician sexual abuse may choose not to report their doctor due to feelings of confusion, intimidation, or embarrassment. Meanwhile, healthcare organizations often address allegations without notifying police or licensing agencies.”5
What Are Specific Examples of Doctor Assault?
According to a post by RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), here are some clear distinctions for physicians’ behavior in the examining room:
It’s okay for your doctor to:
- Explain each part of the exam to you before and while it is happening.
- Use gloves.
- Encourage you to tell them if something feels wrong or uncomfortable.
- Be the same sex as you, if you have asked.
- Only ask you to undress the part of your body being examined.
It’s NOT okay for your doctor to:
- Refuse to answer your questions or tell you to be quiet.
- Examine intimate body parts without gloves.
- Refuse to tell you what they are doing or why they are doing it.
- Decline to have another person in the room with you.
- Insist that you undress parts of your body they are not examining.
- Ask you questions about your sexual activity that make you uncomfortable.
Is This About Suing My Doctor?
Every case is unique and taking legal action is always a survivor’s decision; this being said, that option may be on the table depending on what happened and your willingness to stand up and say you were hurt. (You can do this anonymously – so many women do.)
ACFW engages in civil lawsuits, typically going after a larger institution such as the hospital a doctor was affiliated with – for ignoring complaints about the doctor’s misconduct.
Civil law challenges the entire culture of an industry and its massive assets to financially compensate survivors + reinforce ethics adherence. Criminal law seeks to convict and incarcerate individual predators.
Both civil and criminal lawsuits can be ongoing at the same time. We champion successful outcomes for both and (repeat) we will always seek to help you hold the appropriate powers responsible for wrongdoing.
How Common Is
Doctor Sexual Assault?
Oxford Academic reported in March 2022: “Several attempts have been made in recent years to clarify the incidence of physician sexual misconduct in the U.S… The true extent of such conduct remains uncertain… An investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution identified over 2,400 U.S. physicians who were sanctioned for sexual misconduct between 1999 and 2016.”6
More than 2,400 disciplinary measures have been taken against physicians in the US for sexual misconduct since 1999, according to Esquire nearly a decade ago + other medical sources quoting the same stat as recently as 2023, but only about half of those have permanently lost their medical license or served a prison sentence.
Doctors are too often protected by the institutions that employ them, simply because they are top moneymakers. In many cases, higherups knew about the pattern of abuse from multiple patient complaints, but were loath to address them or warn patients because precious profits were at stake.
What Are Some Examples of Doctor Sexual Assault Lawsuits?
A Case for Women has recently helped survivors take legal action against various offending physicians, including:
Scott Shih-Shia Lee
Former prison OB-GYN Scott Shih-Shia Lee (California Institution of Women, Chino, CA, et al.), who, for years, brutalized incarcerated women with no other option for medical care, was arrested February 2, 2025, and charged with sexual assault of multiple female inmates between 2016-2023. >>
Why Do Doctor Sexual Assault Lawsuits Matter?
These cases are the tip of the iceberg. According to the medical, legal, and government sectors, the data is far from comprehensive.
Many women think that what happened to them wasn’t a big deal unless they experienced egregious assault. “So why file a lawsuit? It’s not like I was raped, so it seems like nobody will care.”
We want to emphasize how lawsuits inform hospitals, etc., in no uncertain terms, that it’s not okay to turn a blind eye to assault and that survivors (like you) are also helping to protect other women by taking action.
Too many serial abusers continue to hurt patients for many years, sometimes decades. How/why? Those hurt and those responsible often stay silent, or once did. Times are changing since #MeToo.
And, in more instances, we’re seeing what happens when just one woman speaks up. It’s not unusual for more (maybe many) women to follow the first voice. As we say – there is strength in numbers, and one is a number!
How ACFW Can Help You
Take Your Power Back.
If you’ve experienced sexual assault by your doctor or any medical professional, please contact ACFW, even if you’ve already reported your experience to local authorities or the offending medical facility.
“When I speak authentically and truthfully about my experience, I have power. I am not going away,” survivor Marissa Hoechstetter reported in “Marissa’s Story”/RAINN.
You have way more power than you realize and we’re here 24/7/365 to help you find it and reclaim it.
We’ve worked with numerous women to help hold large hospital systems accountable for allowing assault to continue under their watch. Assault is never something that should just be swept under the rug. It needs to stop, now, and we are here to listen to your story and help you reclaim your power through legal action.
LET US HELP
Sources
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Unnamed, “Marissa’s Story,” RAINN, September 2023.
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Azu AbuDagga, Michael Carome, Sydney M. Wolfe, “Time to End Physician Sexual Abuse of Patients: Calling the U.S. Medical Community to Action, NIH/PubMed, May 1, 2019.
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Sarah Rense, “A New Report Says Over 2,400 U.S. Doctors Have Molested Patients,” Esquire, July 6, 2016.
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Unnamed, “Sexual Victimization of Patients by Physicians A Factsheet for Survivors & Advocates,” Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, March 2022.
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Jules Murtha, “From protector to predator: Physicians who sexually assault their patients,” MDLinx, June 29, 2023.
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Kunal K. Sindhu, et al., “Honoring the public trust: curbing the bane of physician sexual misconduct,” Oxford Academic Journal of Law and the Biosciences, March 29, 2022.
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WE WEAR THIS BADGE PROUDLY. Because, in a time when legal services are still dominated by men, only a Women Owned Business can bring the woman’s perspective to issues that disproportionately affect women.
We are the ones, far more than men, who are injured by sexual assault, financial scams, the gender pay gap, toxic chemicals, and the misguided practices of powerful pharmaceutical companies.
