I would hesitate to call this sexual assault. I mean, if some guy you meet at a bar decides he’s going to give you a “pelvic exam” whether you like it or not then that’s certainly sexual assault, but this is a legitimate medical examination performed by qualified medical students under proper supervision.
However, I think it is a violation of professional ethics. It sounds like in many of these cases the pelvic exam by the medical student is not actually a necessary part of the patient’s care (although the exam by the physician might be). Patients have the right to make an informed decision as to what will be done to their bodies, especially when it comes to exams that are more for the benefit of the medical students than the patient herself.
I would happily let students poke around my nether regions, as long as I am informed beforehand.
I think that the reaction of women to the idea is going to be quite varied. Personally, I don’t have qualms about the practice exams themselves, but I do have an issue with the idea that they might be performed without my informed consent.
And I’m not even all that private about such things. I know several women who would be terribly upset to find out that something like this occurred, regardless of the medical context in which it happened. Perhaps they have religious beliefs about the sanctity of their bodies, maybe they are just intensely private, maybe they feel that the pelvic exam is a fairly invasive procedure that they don’t want anyone but their trusted doctor to perform. If my mother found out that this happened to her, she would have an absolute cow.
Like it or not, not all women are going to be as cavalier about their bodies as you might be after that…um…vacuum cleaner incident.