“The night of my assault, I knew something horrific had happened to me. I cried myself to sleep feeling devastated, scared, confused, violated and deeply disrespected,” Emma Schwartz said during a Minnesota Senate committee hearing last year.

Schwartz was testifying in favor of a bill that would allow victims of nonconsensual condom removal, known as stealthing, to sue for damages. 

The term most frequently refers to the nonconsensual removal of a condom before or during sex, but it can refer to tampering with any method of birth control. 

Stealthing is a form of reproductive coercion, said Omny Miranda Martone, the founder and CEO of the Sexual Violence Prevention Association.

“Reproductive coercion broadly is when somebody you know pressures manipulates, threatens or forces or controls another person’s reproductive decisions and actions,” Martone said. In addition to stealthing, “reproductive coercion can also include throwing away birth control, threatening violence if a victim doesn’t get pregnant, forcing somebody to get an abortion, preventing somebody from getting an abortion and a range of other things.”

Stealthing defined

When people consent to have sex with each other, they also generally agree, implicitly or explicitly, to a specific risk level: birth control methods, sexually transmitted infection (STI) status, whether someone is on PrEP to prevent HIV. Going back on that agreement is a form of violence and, in the case of stealthing, can be sexual assault. 

Stealthing can be done by anyone, and there are particular concerns among gay men due to potential HIV exposure. That said, stealthing isn’t restricted to penetrative sex.

“Stealthing” entered the mainstream in 2017, when Alexandra Brodsky authored an article about the practice for the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. She highlighted forums where men exchanged tips on how to remove condoms without their partner noticing; NBC News later noted that many of those sites are now offline.

Stealthing laws by state

But only a handful of states have laws addressing stealthing. California was the first to pass a law in 2021, recognizing stealthing as a form of sexual battery and allowing victims to sue. Maine and Washington passed laws acknowledging stealthing in some way. Bills have been introduced but not passed in more states, including Texas and Utah. 

Schwartz testified in favor of Minnesota Senate File 662 last March. The Judiciary and Public Safety Committee recommended the bill be passed with no objections. This is at least the second time the bill has been introduced. No progress has been made since that hearing. 

After her assault, Schwartz co-founded The Adjacent Project, which advocates for legislation addressing nonconsensual condom removal. 

Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are also taking up the issue. Rep. Norma Torres, a Democrat from California, this session reintroduced the Consent Is Key Act, which would provide a financial incentive to states that pass laws on stealthing. Dave Min, another Democrat from California, also reintroduced the more robust Reproductive Coercion Prevention and Protection Act, which would define stealthing as a form of domestic violence and allow survivors to sue for damages. 

What to do if you experience stealthing

Like all acts of sexual violence, stealthing can have a severe impact on a survivor’s mental health. “Being a victim of stealthing has wholly upended my mental health and my life, and most days, I am unsure if I will ever call myself a survivor,” Schwartz said during her testimony. “Two years post-assault, I live in a near-constant state of anxiety, fear and utter distrust.”

The consequences of stealthing include unplanned pregnancies and possible transmission of STIs. The potential impact has changed in the years following the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade. Reports of reproductive coercion doubled in the year afterward.

“The amount of harm that [stealthing] can cause, and the amount of disruption to somebody’s life. is definitely increased now that forms of birth control, including abortion, are very restricted in access or hard to attain,” Martone said. They also noted that cuts to LGBTQ+ health care have impacted the availability of STI testing and treatment. 

Martone suggests that anyone who suspects they were a victim of stealthing reach out to a local Planned Parenthood, which would have emergency contraception, PEP to reduce HIV risk and other ways to mitigate the transmission of STIs.