\n\tLauren Sausser<\/span><\/p>\n

Warning:<\/strong> Some readers may find graphic details in this article to be offensive or disturbing.<\/em><\/p>\n

CAMDEN, S.C. \u2014 Three ongoing federal lawsuits filed in South Carolina accuse the state of forcing boys and girls to undergo traumatic genital exams during child abuse investigations, even when no allegations of sexual abuse have been raised.<\/p>\n

One 14-year-old plaintiff \u2014 who goes by \u201cJane Doe\u201d to protect her privacy \u2014 was placed into foster care in 2021 after she disclosed to a social services caseworker that her mother had spanked her with a belt and a tree branch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never, ever mentioned sexual abuse,\u201d said Jane, who was 12 when the South Carolina Department of Social Services launched its investigation and scheduled her to undergo a forensic medical exam at a hospital in Columbia. \u201cI felt like I was kind of getting legally abused by someone that had the permission to do it,\u201d she told KFF Health News during an interview at her attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

During the exam, Jane was instructed to undress and open her legs in front of medical providers she\u2019d never met before who took photos of her genital area, touched her breasts, and placed \u201cfingers and\/or instruments\u201d in her vagina, according to her lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I had no right to say no,\u201d she told KFF Health News. \u201cSomething inside me told me that wasn\u2019t what they were supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connelly-Anne Ragley, a spokesperson for the department, would not discuss the ongoing lawsuits. Court filings show the agency denies the allegations and argues that its employees are protected by \u201cqualified immunity,\u201d a type of court-created rule that often shields law enforcement officers and government officials from being sued. The department also asserts that forensic exams are \u201cstandard procedure\u201d during abuse and neglect cases.<\/p>\n

Investigating child abuse is notoriously complex. The investigations usually involve forensic interviews, which are typically recorded and involve a professional asking questions of a child to elicit information. And they sometimes include forensic full-body medical examinations that include a visual check of the child\u2019s private parts and are designed to be noninvasive, meaning medical tools that can break the skin or enter the body are not used.<\/p>\n

Together, the interview and the exam are considered effective tools for gathering information and evidence from underage victims, who may be reluctant to describe or disclose how they\u2019ve been hurt. Often, these interviews and exams are conducted at children\u2019s advocacy centers by social workers, doctors, and nurses who are specially trained to treat young patients with sensitivity and care \u2014 and learn to read between the lines.<\/p>\n

Federal guidelines advise that the mere suspicion of child sexual abuse should be sufficient to trigger a forensic medical exam. Even so, there\u2019s a growing consensus in medicine<\/a> that genital and pelvic exams can be embarrassing, uncomfortable, and even traumatic.<\/p>\n

The South Carolina lawsuits \u2014 which involve children who live in different parts of the state and who were assigned to different social services caseworkers \u2014 aren\u2019t the first to raise red flags about the potentially harmful effects of forensic medical exams on children. Since the 1990s, federal courts from New York to California have ruled that government agencies violate children\u2019s and parents\u2019 civil rights when the exams are conducted without a court order or parental consent.<\/p>\n

Claims that the exams are comparable to normal pediatric checkups are \u201cgarbage,\u201d said Donnie Cox, a civil rights attorney in Carlsbad, California.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time they\u2019re happening, they\u2019re scary as hell and it really does traumatize children on top of the trauma of being removed from their homes,\u201d said Cox, who has represented plaintiffs in similar lawsuits. \u201cThey\u2019re using these kids, basically, as pieces of evidence, and you can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A Fishing Expedition\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

In one South Carolina lawsuit, a 16-year-old girl claims she was subjected to painful vaginal exams against her will, even after she denied being sexually abused. She felt as if she was \u201cbeing raped\u201d during the forensic medical exam, her complaint asserts.<\/p>\n

In another lawsuit, a couple living in the north-central part of the state allege their sons were subjected to genital and rectal exams, without the parents\u2019 knowledge or consent, more than a month after the children had been removed from their home in 2021. Their oldest son bruised his arms on playground equipment, they contend, instigating a child abuse investigation that resulted in all three boys temporarily moving in with their grandparents. Their youngest son was 6 months old at the time.<\/p>\n

No one alleged during the investigation that the boys had been sexually abused, the lawsuit states, and yet the boys\u2019 \u201cpenises were held and touched by strangers\u201d during the forensic exam and \u201cfingers and\/or instruments were placed in their anus,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

The parents, whose names KFF Health News chose to withhold to protect the identity of their children, said their middle child suffers from night terrors because of the forensic examination. The oldest doesn\u2019t talk about what happened in the exam room, his mother said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we didn\u2019t know\u201d what was going to happen, she said, \u201cnobody could prepare him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorneys Deborah and Robert Butcher of the Foster Care Abuse Law Firm, who represent plaintiffs in all three South Carolina cases, have likened these forensic medical exams to \u201ca fishing expedition.\u201d One lawsuit they filed against the Department of Social Services argues the agency is financially motivated to find evidence of any form of child abuse so that it qualifies for more money from the federal government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to use every means possible to build a case,\u201d Robert Butcher said. He estimated \u201ceasily thousands\u201d of children in South Carolina have been forced to get unnecessary exams during child abuse investigations in recent years \u2014 an approximation he made based on child protective services intake data<\/a>.<\/p>\n