Dr. Darney is Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Director Emeritus, and Senior Scholar at the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health in the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences.
Dr. Darney received his undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, his MD at UCSF, and his MSc at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is board-certified in Preventive Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology, and he received his training in these specialties at the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. He has served on the medical faculties at Harvard University, the Oregon Health Sciences University, and UCSF.
Dr. Darney began providing abortions in 1974 during his ob-gyn residency, subsequently training and mentoring innumerable students, residents, and Complex Family Planning fellows. His most important and courageous efforts have been to ensure the availability of safe and accessible abortion. Phil realized that the future of excellent abortion care depended on the creation of a future generation of providers. Women throughout the world—and the entire field of family planning – have benefited immeasurably from Phil’s advocacy for reproductive health and rights, his commitment to training the next generation, and his research contributions to family planning care.
In 1981, Dr. Darney founded the Women’s Options Center (WOC) at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG), San Francisco’s city and county hospital, and since its beginning, the WOC has provided contraception and abortion care for more than 1,000 women each year—women who have traveled from throughout the United States and even from other countries. Dr. Darney also founded the New Generation Health Center to improve reproductive health care for low-income teenagers.
Dr. Darney was deeply committed to general obstetrics and gynecology care for the underserved women of San Francisco. For more than a decade he served as the Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at ZSFG. While on faculty, he trained hundreds of students, residents and fellows in general obstetrics and gynecology and especially family planning clinical care and in research.
Dr. Darney was also one of the chief architects of FamilyPACT, a state-funded family planning program for low-income California residents that has improved the reproductive health of women throughout the state. With FamilyPACT, he helped create and sustain a model of family planning provision that other states now emulate.
In 1991, Dr. Darney founded the first Fellowship in Family Planning (FFP) at UCSF. The Fellowship was conceived as an apprentice clinical training model to produce family planning experts and leaders in research, teaching, clinical care, and advocacy. By 1999 there were five fellowships at leading medical schools, and the fellowship program continued to grow under the direction of Dr. Uta Landy as its national director.
In 2005, the American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists voted unanimously to approve that Complex Family Planning become the fifth subspecialty in obstetrics and gynecology. In 2019, when the fellowship had expanded to 30 medical schools, it was accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), and Complex Family Planning achieved subspecialty status by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS).
In 1999, Dr. Darney founded the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. Under his direction, the UCSF Bixby Center has conducted investigations of every type of contraceptive with grants from the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, foundations, and pharmaceutical companies. The Center continues to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services and trains learners from around the United States at the WOC.
Because of his commitment to evidence-based women’s healthcare Dr. Darney is the author of more than 300 scientific papers, scholarly reviews, and book chapters and 5 books on family planning. He has conducted clinical and acceptability trials of all modern contraceptives, including the implant, patch, vaginal ring, injection, oral contraceptive pills, and intrauterine devices.
Over the past 50 years, Dr. Darney has served as scientific advisor and field evaluator to the American Public Health Association, Engender Health, International Projects Assistance Service, Family Health International, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Pathfinder International, and the Centers for Disease Control. He has served as a visiting professor and consultant around the world including Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Egypt, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, Tunisia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, as well as several European countries. He has served as a reviewer for the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology and a dozen other periodicals. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Engender Health, and the Guttmacher Institute as well as the editorial boards of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Contraception. He received from UCSF the Chancellor’s awards for Public Service and for the Advancement of Women and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Since retirement, Dr. Darney, in collaboration with Dr. Uta Landy, has documented the progress in medical education, research, and policy based on the two programs they founded in their book, Enhancing Women’s Health through Medical Education – A Systems Approach in Family Planning and Abortion, published by Cambridge University Press in spring 2021.
The book, comprising 35 chapters by family planning experts in the US and abroad, describes the history and impact of the two training initiatives of the Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion and Family Planning and the Fellowship in Complex Family Planning, helping ensure that training in family planning is routinely integrated into medical education. Without integration, subsequent generations of health care professionals will not be prepared to incorporate evidence-based family planning into their practices, teaching, or research. Omission of this crucial component prevents the cultural and professional normalization of an often stigmatized and embattled aspect of women’s health.
Dr. Darney is a true visionary who cares about the reproductive health of all women but especially those who are the most vulnerable. Phil’s work has benefited women throughout the world, grounded by his commitment to evidence-based family planning care, training, and advocacy at home. This is perfectly reflected in his founding of the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, which integrates research, training, clinical care, and advocacy to advance reproductive autonomy, equitable and compassionate care, and reproductive and sexual health worldwide.