(Screenshot: Twitter)

Dr. Leah Torres, an OB/GYN in Salt Lake City, Utah, said that when she performs certain abortions she cuts the vocal cord of the baby so "there's really no opportunity" for the child to scream. She also described herself as a "uterus ripper outer" because she performs hysterectomies.

Torres made her disturbing comments on Twitter on March 11, in response to a question.

As the tweets show, @ZarbaNotZorba asked Torres about the aborted babies: "Do you hear their heartbeats when you lay down at night? Do you hear their screams?"

Torres replied, "No. You know fetuses can't scream, right? I transect the cord 1st so there's really no opportunity, if they're even far enough along to have a larynx."

"I won't apologize for performing medicine," said Torres. "I'm also a 'uterus ripper outer,' if that's how you'd like to describe hysterectomy."

(Screenshot: Twitter, KP@She_ Became)

Torres's tweet garnered a lot of backlash from pro-life activists. David Daleiden, with the Center for Medical Progress, tweeted on March 13 that his organization did not investigate the Planned Parenthood facilities in Utah "in part because their abortion doctors were the only ones who actually scared me."

"Thanks @LeahNTorres for the very honest reminder," said Daleiden on Twitter.

On March 15, Dr. Torres disclosed that she had deleted her tweet about cutting a baby's vocal cords.

"Yes, I deleted the post," she said on Twitter. "My friend asked me to. See, the thing is, she is trying to open dialoge between 'pro-life' and 'pro-choice' here in Australia, for the greater good of reproductive health.

"Folks allowed the post to inhibit progress, so, it's off my feed." (Torres's feed indicates she was visiting Australia at that time.)