Every year in August, the streets in India are decked in saffron, white and green in preparation for the nation’s Independence Day celebrated on August 15. Amid these, a sea of black, white and red washed through the streets of Bangalore, one of the most prominent cities in India. That sea of young and old, men and women, priests, religious, and laity called to attention the blood-filled streets of an India that kills 42,000 every single day in the name of “empowerment.” From 1971 onward, India has permitted the slaughter of its most vulnerable, plunging the nation into deeper poverty — not material but moral.
In response to this senseless bloodshed and inspired by the Marches for Life that take place across the world, India began its own National March for Life in 2022 under the leadership of CHARIS India. Each year, the March is hosted by a different diocese on either August 9 or 10 in commemoration of the passage of India’s abortion law – the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act that came into force on August 10, 1971. This year, the March was held in Bengaluru, hosted by the Archdiocese of Bangalore. It featured a LIFE exhibition, public gathering, LIFE seminar and a vibrant march.
Creative exhibits by the Eva Pro-Life Movement, the pro-life organization from the Eparchy of Kalyan, made strong impressions:
- “Weapons of Mass Destruction” placed abortion pills, forceps, lethal injection and suicide pods alongside the atom bomb.
- A freezer stocked with meat boxes and a model baby proclaimed, “Meat belongs in freezers, not children,” challenging IVF.
- The assisted suicide section drew chilling parallels between modern euthanasia propaganda and Hitler’s eugenics agenda.