To register her twin daughters for kindergarten a few years ago, Marissa Hoechstetter needed their birth certificates. It had been quite a while since she had last looked closely at them, and when she pulled the papers out, what she saw made her stomach turn, she said.

There, on a document that legally and symbolically marked the start of her children’s lives, was the name of a gynecologist in New York City who she said sexually abused her, Robert A. Hadden.

“I felt sick,” Ms. Hoechstetter said. “I was like, oh my God. Why is his name there?”

Her realization ignited a yearslong effort that culminated in a New York City law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, allowing parents to remove a doctor’s name from their children’s birth certificates, if the doctor has had his or her medical license revoked for misconduct.

The legislation stemmed from Ms. Hoechstetter’s experiences with her doctor, Mr. Hadden, who has been accused by multiple patients of sexual abuse, including Evelyn Yang, whose husband, Andrew Yang, is a Democratic presidential candidate.