Margaret Harpin

Margaret Harpin joined the Center in 2017 and is a Legal Advisor on the Legal Strategies, Innovation, and Research team. Margaret serves as the team’s legal analyst on global comparative abortion law and emerging reproductive rights trends. As a component of this role, she tracks, monitors, and analyzes national abortion laws around the world to understand global trends in abortion law, develop key resources on the status of abortion law globally, and ensure the accuracy of the Center’s World Abortion Laws Map. Margaret also leads research for the development of institutional positions and flagship Center publications and conducts trainings on international human rights law and reproductive rights. Previously, Margaret served as a global Legal Fellow, where she developed capacity building initiatives that supported advocates around the world in utilizing the human rights framework to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Prior to joining the Center, Margaret gained experience at the World Health Organization, where she conducted a landscape analysis on the creation of an enabling environment for healthcare workers involved in maternal death surveillance and response mechanisms. While in law school, Margaret served as an Article Editor on the Public Interest Law Journal and participated in the International Human Rights Clinic, where she focused on projects that utilized the international human rights framework to advocate for legal guarantees and protections for refugees. Margaret has also interned at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Justice, Boston Medical Center, and Ibis Reproductive Health. Margaret has a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, a MSc. in Global Health and Development from University College London, and a B.A. in Anthropology from Smith College.