Joining the Democratic Party, hordes of Hollywood celebrities, and “devout Catholic” President Joe Biden in their outrage against the Texas pro-life law banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, Satan worshipers have threatened to file a lawsuit against the state if their members are denied access to abortion pills.
A Massachusetts-based group called The Satanic Temple (TST) has filed a letter with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to request that the Temple’s members be allowed access without prescription to the abortion-inducing drugs mifepristone and misoprostol as part of its “sacramental” abortion ritual.
The letter reads,
The Satanic Abortion Ritual is a sacrament which surrounds and includes the abortive act. It is designed to combat feelings of guilt, doubt, and shame and to empower the member to assert or reassert power and control over their own mind and body. The REMS [“risk evaluation and mitigation strategy”] prescription requirement substantially interferes with the Satanic Abortion Ritual because the Government impedes the members’ access to the medication involved in the ritual.
The group suggests that anyone who wishes to undergo the “Satanic abortion ritual” would first go to a doctor to receive a medical form confirming there are no “contraindications” to use the abortion pill. Then, upon obtaining such clearance, a member would return to the Temple, which would provide the abortion drug along with the instructions on how to use it. A member would “engage in the ritual,” and then, finally, “return to the doctor for follow-up evaluation” within seven to 14 days.
The letter provides that since there will be no prescription to acquire the “plan B” drugs, the Satanists would obtain them through their “church,” rather than through a pharmacy. That would remove doctors and pharmacists from the process of terminating pregnancy, but, at the same time, the medical oversight would still be provided, the group argues.
The Satanists wrote that they hope to hear back from the FDA within 60 days, and if no reply is forthcoming, the group would file a lawsuit.
Following the news of the Supreme Court not responding to an emergency appeal to block the Texas Heartbeat Act (SB 8), which left the abortion ban in place, the Satanists rushed to social media to reaffirm their support to the “deeply-held religious convictions” to terminate pregnancy. The group welcomed all their members who seek to perform the “Satanic ritual” within 24 weeks of pregnancy to the Temple, and vowed to help them to “fight the law directly.”
According to the group’s website, Texas imposed “medically unnecessary abortion regulations including a sonogram, a forced decision to reject the ‘opportunity’ of seeing the sonogram results, the forced listening to a narrative of the sonogram results, and a mandatory waiting period between the sonogram and the abortion.” Clearly, the Satanists do not want mothers-to-be seeing their unborn babies and listening to their hearts beating.
In a statement reported by Fortune, the group, which claims some 300,000 followers, argues the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) protects its members’ right to access to the abortion pills in the same way it allows Native Americans to access peyote for use in rituals.
TST spokesperson Lucien Greaves also described abortion as an important part of the Satanists’ belief in “bodily autonomy” and “science sacrosanct.” “The battle for abortion rights is largely a battle of competing religious viewpoints, and our viewpoint that the nonviable fetus is part of the impregnated host is fortunately protected under Religious Liberty laws,” he said, per the outlet.
TST explains precisely what a “Satanic abortion ritual” entails:
The Satanic abortion ritual provides spiritual comfort and affirms bodily autonomy, self-worth, and freedom from coercive forces with the affirmation of TST’s Seven Tenets. The ritual is not intended to convince a person to have an abortion. Instead, it sanctifies the abortion process by instilling confidence and protecting bodily rights when undergoing the safe and scientific procedure.
The group recommends those undergoing the “ritual” to look in the mirror and “be reminded of your personhood and responsibility to yourself.” After the deed is done, “return to your reflection, and recite the personal affirmation,” the instruction goes. The decision to terminate pregnancy, the group believes, affirms people’s free will. Though many would argue that one’s free will and rights end when the rights of another human being begin, and abortion, therefore, is a direct violation of another person’s free will, the Satanic Temple sees no contradiction here since it believes in a “freedom to offend” others.
It is not the first time Satanists have tried to legally challenge pro-life laws and demand “religious exemptions” for their members. Thus far, their legal battles have failed.
In 2019, the Missouri Supreme Court dismissed a Satanic Temple member’s religious challenge to a state law that requires a three-day waiting period for abortion and mandates that women be offered an ultrasound first.
In June 2020, the federal appeals court ruled that the Satanists can’t be exempt from Missouri legal guidelines on abortions simply because their spiritual beliefs (such that life does not begin at conception, and that “human tissue” within a body of a Satanist is disposable) disagree with the state law.
In November 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by the Temple to overturn Missouri abortion laws.
