The Satanic Temple is once again suing pro-life states, claiming their laws protecting preborn children violate its members’ “religious right” to abortion. Based in Salem, Massachusetts, the Satanic Temple is suing both Indiana and Idaho, claiming to act on behalf of female Satanists who are “involuntarily pregnant.”
In the lawsuit, the group claims to have 11,300 members in Indiana, and 3,500 in Idaho. They also again noted their so-called “abortion ritual,” describing it as a religious rite. They worship the notion of bodily autonomy, which is why they claim abortion is a religious issue for them. The group’s Third Tenet states that “[o]ne’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone,” which they use as a religious justification for abortion.
“(The Satanic Temple) venerates, but does not worship, the allegorical Satan described in the epic poem Paradise Lost — the defender of personal sovereignty against the dictates of religious authority,” the lawsuits said, adding, “All of the Involuntarily Pregnant Women who are TST members believe the fetal tissue they carry in their uterus – from conception until viability — is part of their body and not imbued with any humanity or existence separate and apart from that of the Involuntarily Pregnant Woman herself.”
They are asking for injunctions to be placed against the laws in both states, which protect nearly all preborn children from abortion. A spokesperson for Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a statement that the Supreme Court already ruled that abortion is not protected by the United States Constitution. “This new lawsuit merely offers weaker arguments for the same discredited right,” Rokita’s spokesperson said.
The Satanic Temple tried for years — and failed — to overturn pro-life laws in Missouri, also claiming they violated their right to conduct the so-called “abortion ritual.” However, it wasn’t until the last few years that the temple began calling abortion a religious rite.
The only thing one must do to complete the supposed ritual is to repeat affirmations in front of a mirror before and after undergoing an abortion.
