Utah Valley Magazine has issued an apology after a Provo OB-GYN accused of sexual misconduct by nearly 100 women was included in the magazine’s “Best Fertility” category.

The doctor, David Broadbent, was first sued in 2022 when four women came forward and accused him of sexual assault and battery while they were patients of his.

Since then, 94 women have joined the lawsuit, and numerous criminal complaints have been made to the Provo Police Department, although the county attorney’s office has not yet determined if it will bring charges.

Each year, the magazine creates a “Best of Utah Valley” list with various categories from entertainment to health care. This year, the “Best Fertility” category ranked Broadbent as third.

The magazine posted a public apology to social media Tuesday, saying his name has been removed online and from the PDF version of the issue featuring contest results. His name remains in print copies.

“When we saw that Dr. Broadbent had received a significant amount of votes and would make the list, we checked to see that the state had not revoked his license,” the magazine wrote. “We chose not to alter the votes, and we let the results stand. We have now heard from many women involved in the lawsuit. Their stories are heart-wrenching. We are particularly sorry that our Best Of results added to their sorrows. This is one case in which we should have set the data aside and disregarded our readers’ votes.”

Broadbent voluntarily surrendered his license in 2022 after the initial accusations, according to previous Daily Herald reporting.

The magazine stated it would be publishing an apology in its next print edition and has added additional guidelines to the Best of Utah Valley process to allow the editorial board to override votes and “remove individuals and companies deemed unfit for the list for legal, moral and ethical reasons.”

“We care about our community and all of its residents,” the statement continued. “We care about women and we believe their stories. We will continue to produce magazines that uplift and inspire, and we are learning from the feedback we’ve received regarding this year’s Best Of Utah Valley contest.”

Sonia McGrath, one of the women who has accused Broadbent and is suing him, said her first reaction was to wonder if someone was behind trying to get his name out there, adding “it was awful” to see his name included among other winners.

McGrath said she initially wanted to give the magazine the “benefit of the doubt,” thinking staff members may have only counted the votes without checking the names.

Stephanie Mateer, who also is suing Broadbent, said it was “so hurtful” to see his name in the magazine.

“For me, it was pretty traumatic, to be honest,” she said. “Like, it was hard to sleep and hard to focus for a couple days afterward.”

While Mateer said she appreciates the magazine’s willingness to apologize, she said it feels like “too little, too late.”

“It just feels a little bit like asking for forgiveness rather than permission, or like, once we got caught and there was a huge social media blowup over our including him on this list, then we’ll do something different and apologize, when I think it could have been prevented in the first place. So that’s a little frustrating,” she said.

McGrath said she viewed the magazine’s apology positively at first, even messaging them a thank you.

However, her reaction changed after she found out that someone had commented on the magazine’s Instagram page about 14 weeks ago to bring attention to the issue.

On a post from Feb. 5, a commenter wrote “David Broadbent should be removed from your fertility category. He has been accused by over 100 women of sexual abuse and using his position as a doctor to take advantage of them. How could he have possibly been added to a list of Utah’s ‘best?'”

“I feel less positive about that response now than I did then,” McGrath said. “I really felt that somebody should have definitely followed up on that.”

Mateer said she credits the group effort among fellow alleged victims in bringing awareness, both with the magazine issue and the case as a whole.

“It’s pretty amazing to see how all these women standing together can make a difference,” she said. “And I think that’s what we’ve shown throughout the whole case.”

Currently, the women’s lawsuit is awaiting a decision from the Utah Supreme Court after a district judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying their claims should be for medical malpractice. Attorneys for the women appealed the decision, with the state Supreme Court hearing arguments last October.

The court has yet to issue a ruling.