The Satanic Temple (TST) is asking the SCOTUS for the same religious protections and exemptions it gave Hobby Lobby. This is a win for people with uteruses living under the new Informed Consent laws that 35 states have now enacted. Can a corporation have a religion, and then use said religion to weasel out of providing its employees the healthcare they deserve? Absolutely! Can actual human beings use religion to avoid parts of the law that they don’t like, too? The Satanic Temple thinks so!
In an attempt to reprimand the Supreme Court for its actions, the temple wants an exemption from so-called “informed consent” laws. Such laws require a woman to read pamphlets written by each state’s health department that can contain information that is blatantly incorrect and often damaging rather than giving her the facts about her abortion. Instead of teaching a woman about the surgery she is about to undergo, informed consent laws can serve to scare and intimidate women out of abortions.
One of The Satanic Temple’s main tenets is that, “one’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.” The idea that a fetus should get to influence a person’s decisions, or otherwise impact its host’s personal autonomy, doesn’t follow Satanic rule. The religion is wholly in favor of safe and accessible abortions. They are against, however, anyone attempting to affect a member’s free will concerning his or her body. Additionally, the religious group preaches that, “beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs.” Informed consent laws are clearly a violation of the Satanic religion, with their medically inaccurate information and attempts to talk women out of abortions.
Since Hobby Lobby was able to claim freedom of religion – a human right – as a corporate right, it doesn’t seem quite so unreasonable that The Satanic Temple wants to claim freedom of religion for, y’know, its human followers.
If you are a person seeking an abortion and want to cut through the political BS surrounding your strictly medical procedure, download one of the TST’s letters explaining to your healthcare professional that you will not allow your autonomy to be compromised by bogus science.
Images via: thesatanictemple.com, ibtimes.com, gender-focus.com
