This act was passed in 1864 in an attempt to regulate sexually transmitted diseases in the military, but in 1869 was expanded. It gave police the complete power to determine whether a woman was a prostitute, and any women suspected of prostitution were required by law to register with the police and undergo an invasive medical exam to determine whether they were suffering from any sexually transmitted diseases. If they refused the exam, women could be imprisoned for up to six months with hard labor. If a woman was found to have any form of sexually transmitted disease, she could also be imprisoned–this time in a lock-hospital (a hospital specifically created to treat venereal disease) until pronounced clean. 

The act did not enforce any examination of men, including male sex workers or men who solicited prostitutes.

Hamilton, Margaret. “Opposition to the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1864-1886.” Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, vol. 10, no. 1, 1978, pp. 14–27. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4048453. Accessed 24 Mar. 2024.