By Cheryl Sullenger
Bethesda, MD — New Maryland state court filings in a disturbing botched late-term abortion malpractice suit have revealed significant new details and the involvement in the case of the founder of the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. His involvement indicates that this case may have great importance to the Abortion Cartel.
Last year, Ashley P. Norris filed a major medical malpractice case against nationally known late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart, his C.A.R.E. abortion business in Bethesda, Maryland, and his associate abortionist Elizabeth Swallow. [Read Operation Rescue initial report based on Federal Court filings.]
That case was later removed to the Montgomery County Circuit Court for continued litigation.
It involved alleged horrific physical injuries and a lack of informed consent during an abortion Norris received at Carhart’s Bethesda late-term abortion facility on May 12, 2020.
New documents showed that Norris was referred to Carhart by a “national abortion services company though an 800 telephone number.”
On May 11, 2020, Norris reported to the C.A.R.E. facility – one of a handful that openly conduct abortions throughout all nine months of pregnancy in the U.S. – for preparation in advance of a second trimester Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) dismemberment abortion procedure.
Norris returned to C.A.R.E. on May 12 for the completion of her second trimester abortion. Even though actions taken the previous day failed to adequately dilated Norris’ cervix, Elizabeth Swallow placed Norris under anesthesia and proceeded with the second trimester abortion. Norris began bleeding heavily and woke up from anesthesia screaming in pain during the procedure. She was immediately sedated, but her condition continued to worsen.
Carhart was called in to assist, but when her blood pressure fell dangerously low, the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Department was contacted. Norris was transported in critical condition to Shady Grove Hospital where she was rushed into emergency surgery.
Hospital medical records indicated that Swallow called the hospital to inform them that Norris was on her way. Swallow expressed concern that the uterus and bowl had been perforated, and that fetal parts remained in the abdomen.
Norris did indeed suffer horrific injuries, including a five centimeter hole torn in her uterus and an incomplete abortion with parts of her baby still inside her uterus and abdomen. Her bowel was also perforated to the extent that stool filled her peritoneal cavity, requiring extensive cleaning and an outside-the-body a colostomy bag. She experienced massive internal and external blood loss that placed her life in danger.
Later, Swallow would deny that she was responsible for Norris’ injuries and claims they were cause by “superseding and/or intervening causes.”
[An interesting note about Swallow: She is also known to have worked at the late-term Capital Women’s Services in Washington, D.C. That abortion facility is associated with the disgraced New Jersey abortionist Steven Chase Brigham. In fact, Swallow was working at the Brigham clinic during 2019, during an investigation into a hospital-filed complaint reporting at least four terribly botched abortions on women who were later treated at Medstar Washington Hospital. Read more about this.]
Norris insists that she was denied informed consent. Her legal filings are adamant that that she was never told that she could face the kind of life-threatening complications she experienced or that her injuries could cause her a lifetime of medical issues. If she had been told, she would not have gone through with the abortion.
Globalist Depopulation Promoter
But the revealing part of the recent cache of court documents obtained by Operation Rescue, was the “Certificate of Qualified Expert” filed on behalf of Carhart and Swallow.
That Certificate and accompanying statement were submitted by Phillip D. Darney, M.D.
Darney’s biography on the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health’s website describes him as “Director Emeritus and Senior Scholar, Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health [and]
Former Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology, San Francisco General Hospital.”
The Bixby Center is a huge organization based out of the University of California San Francisco that operates a spiderweb of international and domestic programs that are dedicated to promoting and expanding abortion worldwide. It also operates propaganda programs that are aimed at influencing the culture to accept abortion as a safe and reasonable course of action.
In the U.S., it operates the Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion and Family Planning, and the Fellowship of Family Planning, which both have trained thousands of new abortionists. Graduates of these programs can be found working in both U.S. abortion facilities and international abortion programs.
The Bixby Center’s funding represents a “who’s who” of globalist foundations and donors who are well known for the depopulation agendas. Some of those include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (providing abortions in Kenya), David & Lucille Packard Foundation, the JBP Foundation (a major donor to Planned Parenthood), and the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation (Planned Parenthood supporter and funder of Gynuity Health Projects, which tested mail-order abortion pills in the U.S.) [See a fuller listing and description.]
Darney was the Bixby Center’s founding director who molded the programs that now train new abortionists at university hospitals and abortion facilities across the U.S.
“Phillip Darney could be considered the most influential abortionist in the U.S. The fact that he is helping to defend Carhart shows the importance of this case to the Abortion Cartel,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “There is a concerted effort in this country to conceal the truth about abortion dangers, and the Bixby Center has been at the heart of it.”
“Based on my review if the case materials, it is my opinion to a reasonable degree of medical probability that the Health Care Providers complied with the applicable standard of care in their treatment of Ms. Norris,” Darney wrote.
He noted that he believed Norris received adequate informed consent from the paperwork she received and that when things when wrong, she was transferred to a hospital for additional care.
Darney is expected to testify on behalf of Carhart and Swallow should the case go to trial.
Physicians for the Defense
However, Norris’s attorneys submitted an amended Certificate of Merit on her behalf of February 3, 2022, by C. Brent Boles, M.D., who is Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology with an extensive teaching background. Boles’ conclusions contradicted Darney’s dubious opinion that Carhart and Swallow violated no patient care standards.
Boles wrote:
In my opinion, and to a reasonable degree of medical certainty based upon the review, [of patient medical records] it is my opinion that the standards of care were breached and that the forgoing Health Care Providers breached the applicable standard of care in one or more of the following ways:
1. Negligent performance of the abortion procedure, including failure to properly utilize continuous ultrasound-guided monitoring technology in conjunction with the instruments of the procedure, which resulted in a significant perforation of the Claimants’s uterus and . . . bowel.
2. Negligent failure to recognize the intraoperative signs and symptoms of the negligent damage . . . as evidenced by the Claimant’s significantly high pain levels and need for excessive pain medication.
3. Negligent informed consent.
In addition to Dr. Boles, Norris’ attorneys are expected to call four additional physicians who provided surgery and other care to Norris during her stay at Shady Grove Hospital.
“If this case goes to trial, it will be interesting to see how a jury regards the expert witnesses from both sides,” said Newman. “It will take a lot to overcome the testimony of the surgeons and other physicians who treated Norris and have first-hand knowledge of her injuries and prognosis. Darney, on the other hand, has an ‘Ivory Tower’ perspective that might impress some jurors. He is very well connected internationally to abortion organizations and their financiers. His involvement shows how important this case is to the Abortion Cartel.”
Currently, the case is expected to begin on February 20, 2023, and run for nine days, but this is subject to change as the case progresses. Norris is seeking nearly a million dollars in damages.
Operation Rescue plans to post updates and they are available and will follow this case to its conclusion.
Carhart is also involved in a second, similar abortion malpractice case that is currently being litigated in Federal Court. Operation Rescue is also following that case, captioned Aragaw v. Carhart, et. al. Learn more about that case at this link.
Read the Montgomery County Circuit Court filings in Norris v. Carhart, et. al. Case Number C-15-CV-21-000205. Part One. Part Two.
