Most 21st century Americans would condemn dated practices damaging to women like neck stretching, foot binding, and ritual genital mutilation. Does modern medicine, however, need its own reckoning now for what the profession and others politely term disparities in women’s health care?

News reports describe problematic reproductive health treatments received by tens of thousands of women. Doctors, especially surgeons — with tradition-based privilege that should alarm all patients — too often experiment on women with techniques and gadgets, finding years later these may have inflicted a terrible toll...