FILE- In this Aug. 22, 2017 file photo, a man looks at a statue in New York's Central Park statue honoring Dr. J. Marion Sims, known as the “father of modern gynecology." Sims developed a pioneering approach to treating physical problems women can develop after childbirth, but critics want his statue to be removed because he developed the technique through operations on enslaved black women in Alabama, without anesthetic. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
FILE- In this Aug. 22, 2017 file photo, a man looks at a statue in New York's Central Park statue honoring Dr. J. Marion Sims, known as the “father of modern gynecology." Sims developed a pioneering approach to treating physical problems women can develop after childbirth, but critics want his statue to be removed because he developed the technique through operations on enslaved black women in Alabama, without anesthetic. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File) Credit: ap photograph

Amid demands to remove Confederate statues across the country, cries have grown louder to dismantle monuments to J. Marion Sims, the “father of gynecology,” a white 19th-century doctor who performed surgical experiments on enslaved black women without anesthesia.

Over the weekend, a Sims statue in New York City, where he established the first hospital for women in 1855, was vandalized. “RACIST” was spray-painted on the Central Park monument, and splotches of red paint were used to deface the statue’s eyes and neck.

The city is considering whether to remove the statue, the site of an Aug. 19 protest, as part of a 90-day review of “symbols of hate” on city property, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week. The memorial was denounced by New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who described Sims’ work as “repugnant and reprehensible” and a “stain on our nation’s history.”

The New York Academy of Medicine reissued its statement calling for the statue’s removal.

Sims, who practiced medicine in Alabama from 1835 to 1849 before moving to New York, invented the speculum and other instruments still in use today. He pioneered surgery for fistula, a condition that left women incontinent after giving birth; historians say the treatment revolutionized the field of gynecology. He also performed the first successful gallbladder surgery and the first successful artificial insemination.

But to make those advances, Sims performed experimental surgeries on enslaved women, raising disturbing ethical questions. His legacy has long been questioned by those who believe he used black women as medical guinea pigs without their consent.

Protesters have demanded removal of a monument to Sims on the capitol grounds in Columbia, S.C., the state where Sims was born. Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, D, the city’s first African American leader, told Chris Matthews during an interview on MSNBC that he is more offended by the statue of Sims on the capitol grounds than any Confederate memorial.

The state health department building is also named in his honor.