A new sexual assault is estimated to occur every 68 seconds in the United States, with nationally reported rapes and sexual assaults increasing from 93,000 in 2006 to 139,815 in 2019, according to data from the FBI, with many still going unreported and many victims, until recently, refusing to seek emergency help. Over the past decade, there has been an increase in emergency room visits related to sexual assault, but the number does not correlate with the police reporting of the crime. Erica Marsh, M.D., senior author and chief of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the Center for Reproductive Medicine at the University of Michigan Health Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital, suggests that these findings depict the role that healthcare can play in the matter.
