BANGALORE, India (LifeSiteNews) — 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.
As pro-lifers from across the nation gathered at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral on the morning of the March, pro-life organizations put the final touches on the LIFE Exhibition: a hallmark of the Indian March for Life. Unlike typical pro-life displays focused only on abortion, this exhibition tackled the full spectrum of life issues: contraception, abortion, IVF, surrogacy, sterilization, pornography, chastity, gender ideology, theology of the body, assisted suicide, and crisis pregnancy resources — all presented with both scientific evidence and Catholic teaching.
Sr. Paulina Melite, the main organizer of the March for Life, told LifeSiteNews, “We intentionally chose to have a LIFE Exhibition that covers the major life issues of our time instead of focusing only on abortion. As pro-lifers, we stand firmly against the anti-life agenda and we want the people of India to be informed and educated on all these issues.”
The exhibition was inaugurated by Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, Archbishop Peter Machado, and Archbishop Francis Kalist, along with the auxiliary bishops of Bangalore.
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.
READ: Archbishop sounds alarm on India’s abortion crisis: ‘Every two seconds a baby is killed’
Pregnancy resource centers such as Life for All, Save the Lives and Garbhdrithi called on the visitors to promote crisis pregnancy helplines and spread the word about their work.
A Memorial for the Unborn was unveiled and blessed at the Cathedral, serving as a monument for life in the city of Bangalore. A solemn Holy Mass was celebrated at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral with Archbishop Machado, Archbishop Kalist (bishop-in-charge of the National March for Life), Archbishop Thazhath (president of the CBCI), and Auxiliary Bishops Arokiaraj Satis Kumar and Joseph Susainathan as the concelebrants. In the homily, Archbishop Thazhath powerfully preached that “God alone is the Author of Life” and that the March for Life is “for God and anything done against Life is against God Himself.”
After Holy Mass, a public gathering was held where Catholic, Protestant, and interfaith leaders stood together to condemn the tragedy of abortion in India and to call on Indians to protect life from conception to natural death.
The March for Life 2025 was then flagged off, and thousands of participants marched the streets of Bangalore dressed in vibrant pro-life t-shirts, bearing banners and placards, proclaiming the humanity of the unborn, opposing assisted suicide, and affirming God’s design for gender and sexuality. The Missionary Families of Christ (MFC India) were a sight to behold as they marched joyfully with their children and infants.
The LIFE Seminar, held after the March for Life, featured the powerful testimony of Mrs. Pranali Vadgaonkar, founder of That’s Life, a pro-life ministry in Mumbai, and mother to 11 children, six on earth and five in heaven. Dr. Finto Francis, renowned pro-life gynecologist and activist, and advocate Siju Thomas, director of ADF India, also addressed participants, equipping them with strategies to defend life in India in the year ahead.
India’s next March for Life will be held on August 9, 2026, in the city of Chennai.
