A satanic group is suing pro-life states to overturn pro-life laws, claiming abortion is central to their religious practice.
The Satanic Temple (TST) in Salem, Massachusetts, has lost similar litigation in Missouri, Indiana, Texas, and Idaho.
According to its website, the headline-grabbing organization is still plaintiff-shopping for religious freedom litigation to find pro-life laws unconstitutional.
The group regularly embraces controversy including a controversial Christmas display at the Iowa Capitol that included a silver goat head and blood-red robes garnered.
Baphomet was later decapitated by by former Navy fighter pilot and Mississippi candidate Michael Cassidy. Supporters raised $120,000 for his defense as of early February. Recently, prosecutors announced they are charging him with a felony hate crime.
As for the killing of unborn human life, the Satanic Temple says the abortion ritual exempts women from state legislation.
Abortion advocates believe women should have the freedom to end the life of an unborn child. Pro-life groups believe life begins at conception and that developing children in the womb have the right to be born.
A website describes the Satanic Abortion ceremony as a destructive and protective ceremony that entails reciting two of the group’s doctrines. Its objective is to eliminate guilt, humiliation, and mental anguish that a patient may feel after a legal and medically safe abortion.
The group’s website outlines the importance of abortion to their religious practice.
“The Satanic Abortion Ritual is a destruction ritual that serves as a protective rite,” the website states. “Its purpose is to cast off notions of guilt, shame, and mental discomfort that a patient may be experiencing due to choosing to have a legal and medically safe abortion.”
Recent court verdicts, such as a Christian company owner refusing LGBT people services on religious grounds, appear to be part of the group’s legal plan to overturn abortion prohibitions. Except that their faith entails ritualized abortion.
Critics think legal strategies are weak. Pro-life advocates say using religious freedom to end a pregnancy is not acceptable.
“The Supreme Court has made it pretty clear that you’re not allowed to claim a religious exemption to get away with doing whatever you want to,” said Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League.
Scheidler said TST’s choice of language ignores abortion’s reality. According to a 2023 National Library of Medicine study, 60% of abortion-seeking women felt “high levels of pressure” to do so.
More than 90% of biologists believe life begins at conception, according to a 2021 government survey.
Scheidler says “They get some sort of adolescent thrill out of the imagined conniption fits that they drive religious people into with their antics. In fact, we sort of roll our eyes and carry on with the real business.”
–Metro Voice