This week, the Archdiocese of Madras-Mylapore and CHARIS India, under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), held an anti-abortion rally at Stella Maris College. Organisers say that 5,000 people attended the event, which was the fifth edition of the National March For Life, and the first to be held in Chennai. Among them was Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker and TVK MLA JCD Prabhakar, who addressed the crowd and assured them that he would take the cause to the Chief Minister’s office.
The history of reproductive rights in India is markedly different from, say, the United States, where abortion is such a hot-button issue that politicians can build their entire platforms based on their respective stances, and how citizens’ vote is heavily influenced by theirs. Anti-abortion demonstrations are quite rare here. This is a country that has long perceived itself as over-populated, and this is reflected in its policies. That an anti-abortion campaign exists is an expression of freedom of speech and thought, and to disagree with its ideological crux is also the same.
However, it is concerning to have a politician from a ruling party not only attend such an event but also put forth views that challenge legal and medical norms, as well as the right to bodily autonomy. The TVK government has not thus far indicated wanting to restrict or prohibit abortion in the state, and the Speaker has a right to his personal values, but to make public verbal commitments about these even in an unofficial capacity is questionable. His participation has drawn widespread criticism across partisan divides.
Reports on the rally on Sunday do not indicate overt calls for punishment for those who undergo or provide abortions, but raising slogans such as “Abortion Is Murder” is highly contentious. Those who understand that abortion is a fundamental right, and that no one needs to justify her decision to have one on medical, economic or any grounds other than that she wants or needs to, can well imagine the further stigmatising effect of anti-abortion rhetoric.
Here in Tamil Nadu, reproductive rights — which include but are not limited to safe abortions — have not exactly been a strong suit through successive governments. The state is infamous for its shadow ban on emergency contraception, for example. As in other parts of India, sex education at the school level is sorely lacking, and conservative morality dictates much of life. Medical practitioners bring those biases into their work, which creates the warranted perception that requesting even basic gynaecological care is stressful. Preventative measures themselves are not widely-accessible, and while a last-resort procedure like abortion may be legal, but it is also taboo and getting one is not always straightforward.
Reproductive rights are technically enshrined in Indian laws, and the Supreme Court reaffirmed in an April 2026 ruling that “Reproductive choice is a fundamental right”. It would be nice to rest easy on this point, but we really can’t. We have to keep protecting this. Misogyny is all around us, and even a passing grasp of how the United States has lost hard-won ground where these rights are concerned over the last few years should serve as cautionary.
