The Satanic Temple says Texas abortion requirements violate religious liberties
Aux Features The Satanic Temple
As it is wont to do, the Satanic Temple has filed suit against the state of Texas, following recently-approved state-mandated abortion requirements that the Temple believe violate members’ religious freedoms. The lawsuit is on behalf of Temple members known only as “Ann Doe” over what they call “medically unnecessary” procedures, such as a sonogram, “the forced listening to a narrative of sonogram results,” and a waiting period between the sonogram and the abortion. The Temple believes these procedures aren’t provided with the patient’s well-being in mind but rather the state-imposed them to “guilt and shame” those looking for reproductive care. Thankfully, those reproductive-rights enthusiasts have Satan on their side.
According to the Temple, these new restrictions impede Doe’s “abortion ritual,” which they describe as “a ceremonial affirmation of self-worth and bodily autonomy.”
“[These] requirements substantially interfere with Ms. Doe’s religious beliefs and practices for two reasons,” wrote an attorney for the Satanic Temple. “The requirements are a precondition to Ms. Doe’s ability to participate in a religious ceremony. It is a substantial interference per se for the state to place a regulatory hurdle–one that costs money–in front of a religious exercise. The state might as well tax and regulate Mass.”
The Temple is currently hoping that the state will allow religious exemptions for these procedures, so followers can conduct their ceremonies under the religious freedoms way the founders envisioned. Essentially, the Satanic Temple is using the Christian right’s legal arguments against them, particularly in Texas, where religious liberties are held in high regard, at least that’s what Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves believes. He writes:
I am sure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who famously spends a good deal of his time composing press releases about Religious Liberty issues in other states, will be proud to see that Texas’s robust Religious Liberty laws, which he so vociferously champions, will prevent future Abortion Rituals from being interrupted by superfluous government restrictions meant only to shame and harass those seeking an abortion.
The Satanic Temple is no stranger to fights on behalf of its members’ religious liberties. Over the last several years, the Satanic Temple has filed numerous lawsuits around the country, arguing for the freedom of its followers. Earlier this year, they threatened to sue the state of Ohio over requirements that force those looking for an abortion to choose how they want the fetal remains to be discarded. They also threatened Netflix with a lawsuit, accusing the series Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina of cultural appropriation, so you know they’re litigious as, um, hell.
The A.V. Club contacted The Satanic Temple for comment. We’ll update this piece if they respond.
69 Comments
I get a small inkling that one can offer behind-the-scenes incentives to get these people to sue on behalf of some cause.The cause, such as abortion rights, is then harmed by the association and has a heavier perceptive load to carry.
This reminds me: in this century, the biggest civil rights victories have been backed by corporations. They were more than cool with same sex marriage (Tiffany’s, for example saw dollar signs). They are keping out of the push for recreational marijuana, but they aren’t lobbying against it. They are standing up for trans rights and voting rights. They should stand up for abortion. Think about it. Would you rather a woman worker take 2 days off (max, for a D&E), or go on maternity leave? Fewer babies. More productivity. I’m half joking. Let’s get the corporations on our side in this terrible 50 year war. On that last point, I am serious.
it’s not that fucking hard, all these republican motherfuckers have been fighting mask restrictions as an infringement on their personal rights and now vaccines are political because they’re being forced to put them into their bodies by the government and that makes them SO mad……BUT they’re gonna keep fighting day and night to drag along the battle they already lost 50 years ago into the 21st century. republicans have an opinion on what you do with your body and who you do it with and it really matters so we’ll all just stop and wait until top republican scientists check everything out and tell us if science is still working.
Hard to believe they once were the party of body autonomy and personal responsibility. Abortion was legalized mainly by Nixon-era Republicans.
It would be nice to consider the lunacy of the Christian right as the albatross around the GOP’s neck, but unfortunately it looks like that albatross is so heavy it’s pulling the overton window a little to much into the authoritarian side of politics.
The Bush wing would agree with your characterization completely. Indeed, the very fact that the albatross is bigger than the body is because all of us assholes rejected their brilliant idea of limiting the right to vote to only our betters. If only we’d stuck with explicit aristocratic/oligarchic voting setups, the Bush wing, by itself, would be guiding us towards a beautifully neoliberal/neoconservative future!
Nobody holds their nose tighter around Trump wing people than Bush wing people. But hold it they do, and hands they do shake.Ergo, the Trump wing is the best evidence to support the Bush wing’s oligarchic voting model, and the Bush wing’s collaboration with them is the best evidence against it.
i think the abortion issue has been their biggest fundraiser, so probably only the die-hard fundamentalists actually care about overturning roe v wade.
it’s like a quote i read about the war on drugs: it’s not winnable, but it’s fundable.
Problem is they have chipped away at abortion rights their view is starting to look “winnable”. It is actually a problem for them. Always better to keep the carrot in front of ass.
it’s just such a stupid fight by the people who scream loudest about religious freedoms and small gov’t. fortunately for myself, i’ve already decided that the republican party and whatever they want/think/say is 110,000% worthless because they’re impressed by donald trump and that is now a total deal breaker. if these shameless cretins wanted to be taken seriously they wouldn’t have chosen trump as their leader but they did so now i refuse to.
I say ask their party affiliation before approving or denying an abortion. If a Democrat, yes please have one! Thin the herd.
amen. it pisses me off to no fucking end that you’ll never get some pussy ass republican to admit they’ve had an abortion or three.
Natalism -> consumerism.
Honestly doubt that’s gonna happen anytime soon. Corporations (or, better, the people running them) may feel one way or another on any given topic but very few are willing to stand up so long they’re not sure about their bottom line.The corporate support for LGBTQ+ equality is only very recent (relatively), and only came once public opinion had shifted enough it wasn’t going to hurt them. Even then – their explicit LGBTQ+ marketing is typically so targeted most people won’t even see it or at least can happily ignore it.It is the same story for so many causes that are considered divisive (even if, often, they really aren’t).Don’t think we’re there just yet when it comes to reproductive rights, even though it could be really really helpful as the situation in the US is truly dire. Women, and their allies, should perhaps start bringing it up on the workfloor though.(Obviously there are some great exceptions, but they are few and far between.)
I’m doubtful as well. Corporations haven’t said boo about all the women who had to drop out of the workforce due to COVID-related childcare issues. There are still too many men in charge who are more than happy to see women stay at home and pop out babies.
i LOVE dave chapelle’s take on why the trans movement has been accepted so fast relative to other civil rights movements of the 20th century: because rich white men can do it. a white guy can’t be black or a lesbian, but they can be trans.
You say that like most of the women who are actually prevented from getting abortions are ones who would be entitled to maternity leave…
True, I made it oversimplified. The vast majority of women don’t have the insurance (or cash) or days to take off work to get a surgical abortion. Thank goodness California and New York allow their Medicaid to cover. We’d have a humanitarian crisis if they didn’t.
Yeeah. Corporations backed out from deals in states that passed bathroom bills. This should be a no-brainer across the board.
They are keping (sic) out of the push for recreational marijuanaThey may not be taking out full-page ads for legal weed, but you’d probably be surprised how much Fortune 500 money shows up in state-level vote efforts. Can’t directly fund the drive, bad optics, but who ordered all these pizzas for the phone bank?
If you don’t think Phillip Morris or Merck has more than a casual vested interest in legal recreational pharmaceuticals, you’re not paying attention.
True, but it is the Federal ban on moving weed across state lines that is holding back listed corporations from getting involved in recreational weed. Otherwise, Coka-Cola and Starbucks would be a player. There’s plenty of time.
FWIW, the Sabrina thing was copyright infringement.
Yeah it was over the baphomet statue in the school she attended. It was very similar to the baphomet statue they specifically designed. They didn’t try to pull off some BS satanic cultural appropriation claim. I don’t even think they could LaVey satanism was founded way before the Satanic Temple.
Yeah, not so much cultural appropriation as literal.
Well, it was great publicity for both sides!I’m just surprised they didn’t settle it at Wrestlemania.
Thank you. I’m pretty sure a nebulous claim of “cultural appropriation” isn’t actually something you can prove caused damages.
Good on fucking them.
Hail Satan!
I remeber my gradeschool was vanadalized with “hail Satin”. That’s some stupid shit.I may be making that up accidently, but I could swear it happened. It’s also from a song.
Satin is a wonderful fabric and I applaud the little scamp for spreading the word at a grade school.
Satin sheets on a bed are so naughty. Hail Satan on satin!
I mean, unwanted babies don’t make for very honest sacrifices.
They would have, had the second boy not assassinated the elder boy during a coup against another House. All that matters is that Loth the Spider Queen is appeased.
D E V I O U S!
I know that this sort of lawsuit is de rigueur for the Satanic Temple, but for all the obvious “religious freedom is actually just code for letting Christian culture retain its stranglehold over America” hypocrisy, do they win very often? I feel like they won one with the ten commandments statue, which ended up as draw in the long run, but I don’t know if they have many successes otherwise.
Being the church of satan you would think they’d have all the best lawyers.
The Church of Satan is the one that evolved from Anton Lavey, and are a bunch of chucklefuck nonces that are too self-obsessed to have any fun; The Satanic Temple are a freedom of speech outfit that are advocating against the underhanded tactics of Christian nationalism.
I’d assume that chucklefuck nonces would know how to have fun …
…no.
Being the church of satan you would think they’d have all the best lawyers.And a lot of politicians under contract.
This was a legit spit take, and you can have all the stars.
The Church of Satan is an entirely different organization with a completely different agenda.
The Church of Satan is not arelated organization… They believe in Magic and Libertarianism, the Temple in truth and science. So… the Church probably has more lawyers. :)https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/what-is-the-difference-between-the-satanic-temple-and-the-church-of-satan
It’s not The Church of Satan. The Satanic Temple and the COS are two different entities. One’s a political movement and the other is just people dressing up and having fun.
Underrated comment
typically they force the hand of something like a school that wants to sanction only christian prayer, or can bring something to federal court (since as a religion they have a fair amount of latitude to be granted standing) which then usually either gets the state in question to back down (to avoid losing and setting a precedent) or the court ruling that under federal rules the practice is discriminatory.The problem is that the supreme court is now firmly in the hands of bronze aged goat fuckers, corrupt graspers and at least one handmaiden, so that strategy wont work anymore.
This is a complicated one, there is a legal precedent set by the stupid cons on the SCOTUS affirming a positive right for religious liberty. They’ll likely back down saying the lawsuit isn’t sound but it really puts them at an impasse as legally their argument falls apart completely.
The Oklahoma 10 Commandments was the ACLU’s case. The Satanic Temple had nothing to do with it beyond generating headlines for an unrelated stunt.So far, the only legal victory between TST’s for-profit corporation and nonprofit registered as a church is Netflix over intellectual property. The rest are ongoing or failed, sometimes spectacularly badly, like in Missouri.
Satanic “abortion ritual?” Qanon loonies are gonna have a field day.
Oh, groan. I don’t even want to try imagine how the Q’s will twist, distort and otherwise go off the rails.
But how can they eat babies if they’re aborting them?!Also, every day is a field day for QAnon loonies. That’s why they’re in QAnon. They “discover” mind-blowing revelations every single day
They “discover” mind-blowing revelations every single dayWow. I didn’t know that.
I mean, are fields representative of good, old-fashioned, Middle American farming values? Or are they suspect for being too close to nature for comfort these days? Inquiring minds that do their own Internet research want to know.
Except that the Satanic Temple explicitly doesn’t believe in the devil, but that would blow their tiny Q minds..
Just like how Conservative American Christianity doesn’t really believe in Jesus or God. They just use the building to plan the next attack on the Capitol, Klan rally, and Patriots viewing parties.
The Temple is upfront about not believing in Satan, though… 🙂
Yeah but when your deity is the Lord of Lies …thats exactly what he’d tell em to do , right? 😉
x
They also have a legal argument on the “deeply held religious belief” angle (what I remember in my head as the “We’re Hobby Lobby and we don’t like women getting birth control, so fuck you, healthcare” precedent), as one of their Fundamental Tenets is “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s will alone.” By that definition, any superfluous medical procedure – sonograms, invasive vaginal ultrasounds, etc. – are against their faith, and TST is officially recognized by the government as a legitimate church.
Hell yeah
If more people adopted the philosophy of “Don’t be a dick”, the world would be a much, much better place.
In the future, the real Culture Wars will be between how the LeVeyan Satanists want to troll the reactionary society, vs. how the Crowleyan Thelemite Satanists want to troll the reactonary society.
Is “Thelemite Satanists” a thing? If somebody told me they were a Thelemite and a Satanist, my kneejerk assumption would be they had never actually read anything by Crowley.
Thelemites used to refer to themselves as “Satanists” because 1. there ussed to be a lot of demon-summoning,* and 2. it was a way to set themselves as “against the grain” back in the day. I doubt they use the term much this last couple of generations.
* look it up: Crowley Summoned the Loch Ness Monster
Interesting. I don’t claim to be an expert in the lima, but just based on the handful of phelomites that I’ve talked to, I think they would all cringe pretty good at being mentioned in the same breath as Satanists.
…well, Thelema is all PR, image, manipulation and poise. And the LeVeyans are a bunch of nerds, and Thelemites are typically too supercool for superschool.
Fair enough. Also, I should REALLY stop trying to use the voice-to-text feature to talk about *Thelema.*
I’ll never understand the big deal. Typically speaking liberals are the ones who’ll get abortions which means less kids being raised by liberals. Give it a hundred years and they’ll wipe themselves out.
Hail motherfuckin’ Satan!!!