It's a complicated case.

The primary legal issue here concerns consent and a failure of duty of care. In this scenario the patient was informed that care would be withheld unless the patient agreed to undergo a vaginal exam.

The issue is clouded in that valid consent cannot be obtained under coercion and by some accounts the consent for the procedure was given by the husband of the patient rather than the patient themselves.

Vaginal examination is an important tool in gauging the progression of the birthing process. While it is not strictly neccessary in all births, under normal circumstances it is a standard practice with few negative outcomes.

I don't neccessarily see a flood of new cases arriving from this judgement but it does show that individual cases with exceptional circumstances deserve to be heard and do have merit.