The wife of US Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang (楊安澤) said that she was sexually assaulted by a doctor while she was pregnant with the couple’s first child.
Evelyn Yang (盧艾玲) said in an interview televised on Thursday by CNN that the assault happened in 2012, and that she was initially afraid to tell anyone.
She and 31 other women are now suing the doctor and hospital system, saying that they conspired and enabled the crimes.
Evelyn Yang said that she was encouraged to speak out after seeing the positive reception she and her husband had been getting on the campaign trail by being open about their son’s autism.
“Something about being on the trail and meeting people and seeing the difference that we’ve been making already has moved me to share my own story about it, about sexual assault,” she told CNN.
Evelyn Yang said that she first began seeing doctor Robert Hadden in New York in early 2012.
As the months went on, Hadden began asking her inappropriate questions about her sexual activity, she said, adding that he spent more time conducting examinations.
When she was seven months pregnant, she believed that her appointment was done and she was getting ready to leave when the doctor told her abruptly that he thought she might need a cesarean section, she said, adding that Hadden pulled her to him and undressed her, then used his fingers to examine her internally.
“I knew it was wrong. I knew I was being assaulted,” Evelyn Yang said, but added that she “just kind of froze” and did not react.
“I remember trying to fix my eyes on a spot on the wall and just trying to avoid seeing his face as he was assaulting me, just waiting for it to be over,” she told CNN.
After the doctor left the room, she left the practice and did not return.
She said that she initially did not tell anyone what had happened to her, and instead blamed herself, thinking she must have done something to “invite this kind of behavior.”
Months later, after the couple’s son was born, Evelyn Yang got a letter in the mail saying that Hadden had left the practice. Curious, she looked him up online and saw that another woman had made a police report accusing him of assaulting her.
She said that she then realized that she was not to blame for his actions.
“This was a serial predator and he just picked me as his prey,” she told CNN.
She said that only then was she able to reveal the abuse to her husband.
In a statement, Andrew Yang said that he was “extraordinary proud” of his wife and no one deserves to be treated as she was.
“When victims of abuse come forward, they deserve our belief, support and protection,” Yang said. “I hope that Evelyn’s story gives strength to those who have suffered and sends a clear message that our institutions must do more to protect and respond to women.”
Evelyn Yang and 31 other women are now suing Columbia University, where Hadden worked, along with its affiliates and the doctor himself, saying that they “actively concealed, conspired and enabled” Hadden’s crimes, CNN said.
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