BOSTON (TIP): Indian American abortion rights activist Sapna Khatri has been named to lead Massachusetts’ Reproductive Justice Unit, a new unit established under state Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell.

The Unit will focus on ensuring that Massachusetts is a national leader on reproductive justice by expanding and protecting access to reproductive and gender-affirming care, Campbell announced in Boston on Oct 2.

It would do so by “addressing disparities in maternal health, tackling misinformation and disinformation that prevents access to care, working across state lines to respond to national attacks on reproductive health care, and championing and defending Massachusetts’ strong legal protections for reproductive rights.”

“We must meet the escalating anti-science, extremist attacks on our basic right to bodily autonomy with bold and comprehensive action,” said Campbell. “I am proud to launch the Reproductive Justice Unit and name Sapna as Director. I am confident that, under her leadership, Massachusetts will be a north star in showing just what is possible when people are free to make decisions for themselves about their bodies, lives, families, and futures with dignity and respect.”

“I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to serve as Director of AG Campbell’s Reproductive Justice Unit, a unit whose mission is not only one I care deeply about, but is critical in our fight for reproductive justice nationwide,” said Khatri.

“I look forward to using my experience as a reproductive justice advocate to help AG Campbell lead this fight and collaborate with community organizations, health care providers, and legal experts across the Commonwealth.”

Prior to being named Director of the AG’s Reproductive Justice Unit, Khatri worked extensively in the areas of reproductive justice and privacy.

Most recently, between 2021 and 2023, Khatri worked as a Sears Clinical Teaching Fellow at the University of California Los Angeles, where she launched the school’s inaugural Reproductive Justice Externship Program.

Khatri also led efforts to establish the nation’s first Medical-Legal Partnership at a Planned Parenthood clinic, in partnership with the UCLA Law Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy, the Black Health Initiative at Planned Parenthood Inglewood, and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. Preceding her time at UCLA,

Khatri served as a law fellow in the Women and Reproductive Rights Project at the ACLU of Illinois and later as the organization’s Advocacy & Policy Counsel for privacy, technology, and surveillance matters. Sapna is a graduate of Washington University School of Law and the University of Missouri.

The formation of the new unit comes in the face of continued nationwide legal challenges to reproductive health access in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which eliminated the federal right to an abortion.

Since the 2022 decision, nearly half of the states in the country have severely restricted or altogether banned access to abortion. States have also sought to ban gender-affirming care and to criminalize providers and parents who facilitate access to it, the announcement noted. These attacks come in the midst of a worsening maternal health crisis and shocking rates of suicidality amongst transgender youth. The Reproductive Justice Unit will work with staff from across the Attorney General’s Office to lead the state and the nation in the fight for reproductive justice by defending against attempts to roll back access to reproductive and gender-affirming care, and championing policies to expand access to full spectrum reproductive and gender-affirming health care in the Commonwealth.

The Unit seeks to center community voices and partner with other abortion protective states to ensure that patients and providers can continue to access and provide full spectrum reproductive health care, including abortion and gender-affirming care, according to a press release.

The Unit will also work to expand the conversation around reproductive justice to include birth justice and to address growing maternal health disparities, especially among Black and brown communities who are more likely to die during or after childbirth.