Anarcha Westcott was a young Black girl enslaved in Alabama. After a traumatic childbirth, she developed vaginal and rectal fistulas, a condition that left her in constant pain and shame.
Instead of receiving care, she was experimented on over 30 times by Dr. J. Marion Sims, who operated on her without anesthesia. He used her body to develop a surgery that would later be used to treat white women, with pain relief, dignity, and consent.
Anarcha didn’t agree to any of it. She wasn’t a patient. She was a victim of medical violence.
Today, she is finally being remembered, not as a statistic, but as one of the true Mothers of Modern Gynecology, alongside Lucy and Betsey.
So apparently James Marion Sims is called the “Father of Gynecology.”
Cool. Love that for him. 🙃
Meanwhile Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey went through dozens of experimental surgeries without anesthesia and somehow they’re not in medical textbooks—except as footnotes.
Imagine being literally the mothers of gynecology but the man who tortured you gets the parental title.
Like… “Congratulations, sir, on your newborn invention. Don’t mind the Black women who actually did all the labor.”
Medical racism didn’t start with doctors ignoring Black women’s pain in 2023—it’s been the default setting since the 1800s.
But sure, let’s keep pretending bias in healthcare is just a “modern oversight.” 🙄
J. Marion Sims, a nőgyógyászat ellentmondásos “atyja”
Sims a sebészeti technikáit női rabszolgákon kísérletezte ki. Akiknek a neve fennmaradt: Lucy, Betsey és Anarcha. Csak Anarcha-n 30 operációt hajtott végre érzéstelenítés nélkül 1845 – 1849 között.
Több okból tehette ezt. Egyrészt rengeteg nő ténylegesen szenvedett nőgyógyászati problémáktól, akiken (ha jól sikerült,) segíthetett az operáció. Másrészt ez egy teljesen új terület volt az orvostudományban, eddig vakon vizsgálták csak a nőket, mindvégig szemkontaktust tartva, az akkori erkölcsi normáknak megfelelően. Így Sims is tudta, hogy viszonylag könnyen hírnévre tehet szert új módszereivel. Harmadrészt, 1808 után már nem szállítottak az USA-ba rabszolgákat, így a rabszolgatartóknak más eszközökhöz kellett folyamodniuk, hogy fenttartsák a rabszolgáik számát- minél több szüléssel-, és ezért hajlandóak voltak orvoshoz küldeni a női rabszolgákat, akik valamilyen egészségügyi oknál fogva nem tudtak (eleget) szülni.
Az orvosi szakkönyvek még a 2000-es években sem mindig említik Sims morálisan erősen kétségbe vonható módszereit, amivel fontos eredményeit elérte (az általa kifejlesztett vizsgálótükör az alapja a maiaknak is). A sokáig a Central Parkban álló szobrát átvitték a Brooklyn-i temetőbe, ahol nyugszik.
The city voted to move a statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims, the "father of modern gynecology," from Central Park to his burial site in Brooklyn.
New York City workers removed a Central Park statue on Tuesday commemorating Dr. J. Marion Sims, a 19th-century surgeon who made significant advances in gynecology at the expense of enslaved black women.
Sims, widely regarded as the “father of modern gynecology,” established the first hospital for women in New York City in 1855. He invented the speculum and pioneered a surgical technique for repairing a vesicovaginal fistula, a complication of obstructed childbirth.
But Sims’ advancements were developed after performing experimental surgeries on female slaves without anesthesia and, some experts say, without consent. These trials were grave ethical violations, according to many historians and social justice activists.
“While some may have thought Dr. J Marion Sims was a pioneer, we know that his work was highly unethical and deeply racist,” New York City Public Advocate Letitia James tweeted Tuesday. “A monument to recognize a serial torturer of enslaved black women has no place in our city & today action is being taken to finally remove it.”
The NYC Public Design Commission on Monday voted unanimously in favor of moving the Sims monument from Central Park to his burial site at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. The bronze statue, previously held upon a granite base in the park, will rest on a low pedestal in the cemetery, The New York Times reported.
The commission’s decision came roughly eight months after Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered a review of all “symbols of hate” in the city following a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Sims’ statue was the target of a protest in August organized by Black Youth Project 100, an activist group founded in 2013. A photo of four women protesters wearing bloody hospital gowns to symbolize Sims’ disturbing experiments went viral.
