Doctor Invents An Anti-Rape Female Condom With Spiky Teeth Inside To Bite Would-Be Rapists

It was back in 2005 that the anti-rape female condom invented by Dr. Sonnet Ehlers was first unveiled to the world. Called the Rape-aXe, the South African doctor was inspired to make it after a rape victim she'd met while on call had said "If only I had teeth down there."

So Ehlers designed and created a prototype for a female latex condom which has spiky teeth lining the inside. These teeth latch onto a man's penis after penetration, and make it impossible to take off—the only people who could remove it would be doctors, meaning the man would have to go to hospital where he would be arrested and charged.

"It hurts, he cannot pee and walk when it's on," Ehlers told CNN back in 2010. "If he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter... however, it doesn't break the skin, and there's no danger of fluid exposure."

After its initial unveiling the condom was never actually mass-produced or marketed to the public. It came into the headlines again in 2010 when South Africa, which has one of the highest rates of sexual violence in the world, was hosting the soccer World Cup. CNN report Ehlers as saying she would be distributing 30,000 of them for free during the cup.

However, it looks like whatever ambitions Ehlers had for the Rape-aXe have long been quashed. The website no longer functions and Snopes has said it's found no evidence to suggest Rape-aXe has ever made it beyond the prototype stage. Or that it ever will.