The Satanic Temple filed another pro-abortion lawsuit Wednesday, this time claiming the state of Indiana is violating its members’ religious freedom by banning the killing of unborn babies in abortions.
The Satanic group says an abortion is one of its “religious rituals,” and banning it violates its members U.S. Constitutional rights.
Indiana protects unborn babies by banning almost all abortions. However, a judge temporarily blocked the pro-life law last week in response to a separate lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union and several abortion facilities. Pro-life leaders estimate the law, if enforced, will save about 161 babies from abortion every day.
In the Satanic Temple lawsuit, the group says the pro-life law violates its Indiana members’ religious freedom, Fox 59 reports.
The lawsuit claims its religion is based on the idea that “beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world,” and an unborn baby is just part of the woman’s body and not its own separate human person, according to the report.
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Although the Indiana law allows exceptions in cases of rape and incest, the lawsuit claims one of its members’ beliefs is being violated because she became pregnant “without her consent” and cannot get an abortion, the local news report continues.
Here’s more:
The woman became pregnant “without her consent,” according to the lawsuit, and gave the reason for this involuntary pregnancy as the legal inability of the woman to consent to sex (other than rape or incest) along with the failure of birth control.
Tenant III of the Satanic Temple tenants states, “one’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.” Under this tenant, the temple said the fetal tissue carried in the woman’s uterus is not seen as an “unborn child,” as Indiana Code states. Instead, from conception to viability, the fetal tissue is not believed to be imbued with any humanity or existence separate and apart from that of the pregnant woman herself.
The lawsuit also accuses Indiana of violating the Thirteen Amendment, which prohibits slavery. According to the lawsuit, the abortion ban forces women “into a condition of involuntary servitude” because they must carry their unborn babies to term.
Additionally, it claims the pro-life law violates its members’ religious freedom under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act because one of its tenets is that “one’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.”
The lawsuit is no surprise. In May, the Satanic Temple announced plans to challenge pro-life laws on religious freedom grounds in anticipation that the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, which it did in June.
The Satanic Temple calls abortion a religious “ritual” and likens it to communion or baptism for Christians. In 2020, it even raffled off an abortion to raise money for its lawsuits.
The Satanic Temple is deeply involved in abortion advocacy. Breitbart once described its work as a “pro-abortion crusade to come to the aid of America’s largest abortion provider,” Planned Parenthood.
It has filed multiple lawsuits in different states to overturn pro-life laws, though its attempts thus far have failed. Other recent lawsuits include a challenge to the Texas heartbeat law, which pro-life advocates say has saved at least 20,000 unborn babies’ lives thus far.
The satanic group also is pushing its beliefs on young children. Recently, the group began opening clubs in elementary schools.
