A statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims, known as the “father of gynecology,” stands in front of the Alabama State House in Montgomery. In fall 2021, another set of statues went up in Montgomery, in honor of his victims: Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey, three enslaved Black women that Sims conducted brutal experiments on in order to develop new techniques in obstetrics. Men like Sims, for centuries, have gotten most of the credit in the history of gynecology. Far less noted are the women whose skills were essential to the birth…
