{"id":1456981,"date":"2024-02-12T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T03:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1456981"},"modified":"2024-02-12T22:40:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T03:40:00","slug":"satanic-temple-claims-abortion-is-part-of-their-religion-in-effort-to-block-abortion-bans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/satanic-temple-claims-abortion-is-part-of-their-religion-in-effort-to-block-abortion-bans\/1456981\/","title":{"rendered":"Satanic Temple Claims Abortion Is Part Of Their Religion In Effort To Block Abortion Bans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Satanic Temple Claims Abortion Is Part Of Their Religion In Effort To Block Abortion Bans<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

A pro-life activist holds a plastic fetus in a protest in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, on June 23, 2022. (Nathan Howard\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

A satanic group is continuing attempts to overturn abortion bans in pro-life states by filing lawsuits claiming abortion is part of their religion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Satanic Temple (TST), a nonprofit based in Salem, Massachusetts, has filed lawsuits in Missouri, Indiana, Texas, and Idaho that so far have been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

That hasn\u2019t stopped the headline-grabbing organization from plaintiff-shopping for new religious freedom lawsuits to stop abortion bans, according to its website.<\/p>\n

The group doesn\u2019t shy away from controversy. It made news recently for staging a satanic holiday display featuring a silver goat head atop blood-red robes during Christmas at the Iowa Capitol. The Baphomet statue shared space with a Christmas display until it was decapitated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Cassidy, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot who ran for office in Mississippi, took credit for tearing it down. The Christian conservative raised $120,000 as of early February for legal fees after being charged with criminal mischief. Recently, prosecutors announced they are charging him with a felony hate crime.<\/p>\n

TST created an abortion ritual that it claims will exempt women from their states\u2019 laws. The ritual, along with TST\u2019s new abortion clinic in New Mexico, was featured in November\u2019s Cosmopolitan magazine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Proponents of abortion feel a woman should have control over her body, and abortion should be a choice. Pro-life groups contend that life starts at conception and that the developing child has the right to life.<\/p>\n

TST named their clinic Samuel Alito\u2019s Mom\u2019s Satanic Abortion Clinic, mocking the U.S. Supreme Court justice who wrote the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade.<\/p>\n

The abortion ritual involves the recitation of two of the group\u2019s tenets and reinforces the idea of bodily autonomy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Satanic Abortion Ritual is a destruction ritual that serves as a protective rite,\u201d the website states. \u201cIts 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pro-choice demonstrators and anti-abortion activists meet on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, as the court prepares to hear arguments reopening the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, on April 26, 1989. (Greg Gibson\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The group\u2019s website states that it relies on several legal arguments: that denying members access to abortion infringes on their religious right to participate in a satanic abortion ritual; that forcing someone to carry an unwanted child amounts to seizing a woman\u2019s uterus without compensation; and that forced pregnancy is akin to servitude, in violation of the 13th Amendment, which abolishes slavery.<\/p>\n

In the case of Indiana, the group argues that the abortion restrictions criminalize abortions resulting from protected sex and create a class of people who are discriminated against because they are denied an abortion.<\/p>\n

Recent judicial rulings, such as the case of a Christian business owner denying services to LGBT people on religious grounds, appear to be part of the group\u2019s legal strategy to flip the script on abortion bans. Except in this case, their religion involves providing the service of ritualized abortion.<\/p>\n

Critics say the legal strategies are shaky.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jonathan Hullihan is a Texas attorney for Citizens Defending Freedom, a watchdog group focused on liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. He told The Epoch Times that the High Court\u2019s decision in Dobbs held that the Constitution did not confer a right to an abortion, leaving it to states to regulate.<\/p>\n

TST has brought claims under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) or state versions, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an attempt to recognize a federal constitutional right to abortion in direct conflict with the Dobbs holding,\u201d Mr. Hullihan said.<\/p>\n

People protest in response to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, on June 24, 2022. (Brandon Bell\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile courts generally don\u2019t question the sincerity of religious beliefs, the claim that religious beliefs require members to seek an abortion is unlikely to prevail in court,\u201d he said. When contacted for comment, Lucien Greaves, TST co-founder and spokesperson, told The Epoch Times that critics don\u2019t have a monopoly on freedom of religion.<\/p>\n

ProLove Ministries founder and CEO Abby Johnson questioned the idea of religion without a deity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s interesting they\u2019re trying to get a religious exemption when they say over and over and over again that satanism isn\u2019t a religion and they\u2019re non-theistic,\u201d she told the Epoch Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m like, \u2018Tell me again how you are trying to get a religious exemption?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Out of Touch\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Opponents of abortion argue that religious freedom doesn\u2019t mean anything goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Supreme Court has made it pretty clear that you\u2019re not allowed to claim a religious exemption to get away with doing whatever you want to,\u201d said Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League.<\/p>\n

TST\u2019s rhetoric about choice ignores the facts about abortion, Mr. Scheidler said. Some 60 percent of women who get an abortion felt \u201chigh levels of pressure\u201d to do so, according<\/a>\u00a0to a 2023 study in the National Library of Medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are really out of touch<\/strong>,\u201d Mr. Scheidler told The Epoch Times. \u201cI mean, most Americans find a story like this kind of horrifying, people making light of abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 2021 government study\u00a0found<\/a> more than 90 percent of biologists believe life begins at conception.<\/p>\n

Mr. Scheidler suspects part of the group\u2019s goal is to play the provocateur.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey get some sort of adolescent thrill out of the imagined conniption fits that they drive religious people into with their antics,\u201d Mr. Scheidler said. \u201cIn fact, we sort of roll our eyes and carry on with the real business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Epoch Times reporters Sam Dorman, Samantha Flom, and Jackson Elliott contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 02\/12\/2024 – 17:40<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bRead More<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Satanic Temple Claims Abortion Is Part Of Their Religion In Effort To Block Abortion Bans Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1456981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-671H","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1456981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1456981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1456981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1456981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}