‘Surrogacy and abortion are strange bedfellows’: representation of the complex phenomenology of reproductive choices and decision-making in Indian films on surrogacy

The paper examines how the intersection of surrogacy and abortion is employed as tropes in recent Indian films— Welcome Obama , Mimi , and Dukaan —to reiterate the bio-deterministic model of motherhood, reproductive choice and decision-making. In addition, the paper also analyses to what extent these select films offer avenues to construct ( alter ) narratives to contest the stigma of “bad mother” attached to the identity of intending mothers. Utilizing the frameworks of intersectional feminist theory on mothering and reproductive justice, the paper delves into the complex depictions of reproductive choice and decision-making of the surrogate and intending mothers. Critical insights from disability studies and bioethics are also drawn to examine the theme of disability-selective abortion as dramatized in the films. Through in-depth analysis, the paper concludes that filmmakers have unintentionally created new types of stigmas and binaries that negatively portray the reproductive decisions of the intending mothers. However, there are fleeting moments in the films that provide room to speculate on the situational vulnerability of the intending mothers. These fissures, the paper argues, enable an understanding of the reproductive choice and decision-making of the intending mothers through a renewed perspective. The paper emphasizes that this practice of constructing ( alter ) narrative is essential for advancing the goals of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), which seek to establish a society wherein individuals can exercise their reproductive rights without facing violence, coercion or discrimination.