50 women sue OB-GYN, accusing doctor of sexually abusing them during Utah appointments

A Utah OB-GYN is being sued by 50 patients accusing him of sexual abuse.

Dr. David Broadbent, a doctor who has practiced in Provo for decades, was first sued in February by four women who said he abused them by touching them inappropriately and nonconsensually under the guise of a medical procedure, the Daily Herald reported.

Since then, dozens of women have come forward with similar accusations against Broadbent, and the original lawsuit has been amended to include 50 plaintiffs, KUTV reported.

The alleged incidents occurred between 1979 and 2021, court documents show.

“Plaintiffs felt horrible and violated, but Broadbent concealed his sexual misconduct under the guise of medically necessary care and hid behind the protected position of authority and trust inherently given to physicians,” the complaint, filed in district court in Utah County on March 14, said.

Broadbent’s attorney, David C. Epperson, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from McClatchy News.

But Epperson told The Salt Lake Tribune that Broadbent “categorically denies all of the allegations of wrongdoing that are asserted in this lawsuit.”

“Medical ethics prevent Dr. Broadbent from saying anything more, but he believes that time will prove that the charges in this lawsuit have no basis,” Epperson told The Salt Lake Tribune.

The victims were all identified as Jane Doe in court filings. One woman said she felt like “she was just a piece of meat on the exam table” when she was in Broadbent’s office, according to the complaint.

Another woman who said she was anxious about getting a Pap test said she asked Broadbent to wait for her to relax, to which court documents say he responded, “oh, you need a minute to get ready to get assaulted?”

Court documents also highlighted the location of Broadbent’s office, noting that it’s “positioned one block from Brigham Young University freshman dorms and in the middle of numerous apartment complexes in which thousands of young female Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University students live.”

The accusations against Broadbent first came to light when one woman discussed her experience on a podcast in December 2021, the Daily Herald reported. After that, other women began coming forward, according to the outlet.

The lawsuit accuses Broadbent of exhibiting a pattern of abusive and demeaning behavior with his patients, including during first-time pregnancy exams, first-time pelvic exams and pre-marital exams.

“A woman is rarely more vulnerable than when she is laying on an exam table, unclothed, trusting a male gynecologist to provide her with the medical care she needs,” the lawsuit says. “Dr. David H. Broadbent took advantage of his position, Plaintiffs’ vulnerability, and that relationship of trust as he sexually battered and abused Plaintiffs and numerous other women over the course of four decades.”

Some of the women accused Broadbent of conducting unnecessary pelvic exams or conducting procedures incorrectly for ”his own sexual gratification.” One also accused Broadbent of making insensitive comments about her miscarriage, and another said he did not wear gloves during exams, including breast exams, court documents said.

Several of the women said they felt uncomfortable with Broadbent’s behavior and left his office feeling violated but that they brushed it off and told themselves that they should trust the doctor’s decisions, court documents said.

Adam Sorenson, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, told the Daily Herald that his law firm anticipates more women will come forward. He also said that nurses who worked with Broadbent were not named in the lawsuit but will likely be deposed, the outlet reported.

“The traumatic abuses Plaintiffs experienced in a ‘safe space’ with a person they were supposed to be able to trust shattered Plaintiffs’ sense of the world, their sense of safety, and their conception of trust in medical care providers everywhere,” the lawsuit said. “It caused Plaintiffs to question themselves, what they believe and know, and caused lasting harm which will not end with the resolution of a lawsuit — but from which other women, potential victims, may be protected.”

This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 11:05 AM with the headline "50 women sue OB-GYN, accusing doctor of sexually abusing them during Utah appointments."