The Satanic Temple has joined the legal wrangling to block or overturn Texas' severe new abortion law. That law, which the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block this week, bans the medical procedure after six weeks, including in cases of rape and incest.
The Salem, Massachusetts-based Temple filed a letter with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration arguing that its Texas members should have legal access to abortion pills. The group's attorneys contend that its status as a non-theistic religious organization should ensure access to abortion as a faith-based right.
In the letter, the Temple argues that abortion pills Misoprostol and Mifepristone should be available for its use through the the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which protects Native Americans' use of peyote in religious rituals. The Temple says those the same rights should apply to the drugs it uses for its own rituals.
“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," said Lucien Greaves, the Temple's spokesman and co-founder, in an emailed statement.
“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 Religous Liberty laws,” Greaves added.
The U.S. Supreme Court last year declined to hear a case brought by the the Temple to overturn Missouri abortion laws.
Even so, the organization — an IRS-recognized atheist church with 300,000 members — has filed suits in multiple states to highlight religious overreach. In one of the highest profile of those, the organization argues that it should be allowed to place a bronze statue of the goat-headed entity Baphomet in the Arkansas Capitol since the state is displaying a Ten Commandments monument there.
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