A Response to Abortionist Dr. David Turok on Abortion

As the Vice President of Pro-Life Utah, I feel duty bound to respond to this piece written by Utah abortionist David Turok. 

Dr. Turok conveniently does not mention his exact position, but he is the Director of Surgical Services at Utah Planned Parenthood and their main abortion provider. As such, he certainly has a financial stake in this debate. 

Abortion is unlike any other branch of medicine. It purposely ends a life. I have spoken with numerous obstetricians, and even they are not well-versed in what goes on in Utah’s abortion underworld. You see, your standard OB likely does not live in that world (less than 10% do abortions). I once had a Utah OB tell me that NOBODY was using a D&E procedure (a dismemberment procedure where the living baby is pulled apart inside the womb). I had to use the Health Department’s own statistics to convince this OB that indeed, this procedure exists in Utah. Unless they choose to moonlight, your OB is not an expert on abortion.

Let me show you some of what I know about the practices of Utah abortion providers: 

 In 2017, Pro-Life Utah ran an investigation into the informed consent practices of Utah Planned Parenthood locations and Wasatch Women’s Center. Every location neglected to disclose the necessary details about the gestational development of babies and how the abortion procedure affects the baby that is required by Utah law. Further, the Planned Parenthood handout described ALL abortion procedures up through 22 weeks as using “gentle suction to remove the pregnancy.“ This is medically false. The suction is not gentle, and an entirely different procedure is used starting from about 14 weeks on up. The misinformation was so extreme that a new law was passed, and the Health Department created a comprehensive module so that women could receive true informed consent. 

Abortion defenders love to talk about Dr./Patient relationships, but the truth is that at abortion clinics, patients do not even meet the doctor until the procedure. There is no relationship. Informed consent is done by a clinic worker 72+ hours prior to the procedure. 

Dr. Turok does something in his article that is often done by abortion providers when they testify about pro-life bills: redirection. He uses a non-standard situation to be the example of the majority of abortions. According to the most recent report of Utah’s abortion numbers, 97% of abortions were elective and not due to fetal anomalies or health of the mother. Perfectly healthy babies, killed while growing inside of their healthy mothers. Also, abortion is not stopping the development of “a potential human being,” as Turok asserts. It is ending a life that has already been created. Let’s not forget this, as Dr. Turok tries to place an alternate reality in our view.

The pro-life bills Dr. Turok laments are in our legislature precisely because the abortion industry does not do their job properly. How can they? When women know and understand about the development of their baby and what exactly an abortion does, when they have seen an ultrasound, heard the heart beat, and learn the resources available to them, the majority will reject abortion. 

It is absurd that abortion providers think they deserve respect. Approximately 58 babies are killed weekly in Utah. Abortion providers KILL CHILDREN. Dr. Turok wants legislators to stay out of medicine, but abortion is not medicine: it is an intentional life-ending procedure that certainly falls under the purveyance of the Utah Legislature. Included in Dr. Turok’s piece is a list of 500 Utah health care providers. What a shame that anyone in the medical community would put their name behind a man who spends his days performing and overseeing the killing of thousands of Utah children.