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Paper short abstract

I analyze how a transnational reproductive governance system informs advocacy for decriminalizing abortion in India, which is led by foreign-funded NGOs who are constrained by state laws, donor conditions, and limited support from the Indian women's movement.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines NGO-based advocacy for abortion decriminalization in India. Concurrent to a wave of abortion decriminalization globally, abortion activists and scholars argue that decriminalizing abortion is the key to expanding safe abortion services and abortion rights are an indicator of democracy. In India, the abortion law was liberalized by the state during the height of population control; consequently, abortion has not been politically contentious, and the law has historically been liberally interpreted. Moreover, abortion has also not been a site of social movement mobilization and abortion advocacy has primarily been undertaken by foreign-funded NGOs. In the current moment, NGOs are operating under constrained circumstances, given growing state hostility to NGOs and decreasing funding for advocacy work. Given the constraints on NGOs, and the absence of political contestation around abortion, why has decriminalizing abortion become important for NGO-based abortion advocates, and how does their advocacy take shape? I examine how a transnational system of reproductive governance involving the state, donors, and international advocacy networks influences the ideologies, strategies, and actions of NGO-based abortion advocates, giving rise to a 'transnational episteme' among abortion advocates. This paper is part of ongoing doctoral research.