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On Thursday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two new laws that give victims of sexual assault and misconduct more rights.
Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia introduced both measures, one dealing with “stealthing” and the other with spousal rape.
The first bill, AB 453, makes it a civil sexual battery offense for someone to stealth or remove a condom during sex without their partner’s consent.
According to the Associated Press, California is the first state in the country to outlaw the practice.
Victims of stealth can sue the person who commits the violation for damages and relief under the new law, which Garcia has been fighting for since 2017. “Sexual assaults, especially those on women of color, are perpetually swept under the rug,” Garcia said in a statement. “…It’s disgusting that there are online communities that defend and encourage stealthing and give advice on how to get away with removing the condom without the consent of their partner.”
Newsom’s office cited a Yale research from 2017 that revealed that both men and women had been victims of stealth. Along with fearing a sexually transmitted infection or an unplanned pregnancy, the victims regarded the event as a “disempowering, demeaning violation of a sexual agreement.”
The second bill, AB 1171, repeals an existing clause that treats marital rape differently than non-spousal rape. Every state prohibits spousal rape, although California is one of nine that distinguishes it from non-spousal rape. California law defined rape as an “act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a person not the spouse of the perpetrator under certain circumstances” before the bill’s signing.
An example of these circumstances is the incapacity to offer legal permission due to a condition or handicap or the perpetrator falsely describing the situation. Spousal rape, on the other hand, “does not include acts of sexual intercourse accomplished under the specific circumstances.”
Recently the move eliminated this exemption and included spousal rape in the larger term of the act, except in certain circumstances when one of the marital partners has a mental condition, developmental or physical impairment.
In a statement announcing the bill’s approval, Newsom’s administration emphasized the prevalence of intimate partner abuse.
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, rape in marriage is the most underreported form of sexual assault, despite the fact that between 10% and 14% of women are raped at some point during their marriage.
Spousal rape was not recognized as a crime in any state until 1976.
The sentence for spousal rape has also changed under the new California law. While people who rape their spouses face the same maximum penalties as non-spouses, they are eligible for probation and are not added to the sex offender registry. The offender will no longer be able to avoid those sanctions if a spouse is raped by force, while under the influence or unconscious, or if threatened with retaliation.
“Rape is rape,” Garcia said in a statement. “And a marriage license is not an excuse for committing one of society’s most violent and sadistic crimes. AB 1171 will mandate adherence to a law that will protect vulnerable spouses in a union.”
