And in other news, Satanists are trying to save abortion in Missouri. Until this month, there was one Planned Parenthood in St. Louis. The organization announced on Monday that its clinic in Kansas City is offering medication abortion; it’s Columbia location will soon offer surgical abortions and two other clinics are applying for a license.
A federal judge ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood, stopping officials from enforcing Missouri’s two anti-abortion provisions, Slate reported and Satanists might be responsible for giving women in the state access to healthcare.
On Monday, the Satanic Temple asserted in court that the state’s restrictions on abortion violates its members’ right to practice religion.
Planned Parenthood has battled state regulations requiring doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges and clinics that provide abortions to meet standards set for outpatient surgical centers.
The organization is challenging two state-level laws: one that requires patients to look at unscientific anti-abortion propaganda and another that forces them to wait 72 hours between initial consultations and second appointments.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down similar laws in Texas last year, deeming the measures unnecessary and unconstitutional, the Kansas City Star reported.
Christina Cauterucci wrote for Slate:
“Satanic Temple members argue that their religion prizes rational, independent thought and that forcing Satanists to read anti-abortion pamphlets and ‘consider a religious proposition with which they do not agree’ during the 72-hour waiting period constitutes a violation of their beliefs.”
This isn’t the first time Satanists stood up for reproductive rights. In 2015, a pregnant Satanist from a rural part of Missouri identified as “Mary,” according to Slate, attempted to use a religious exemption from the state’s requirements.
Mary said she had the money for the abortion, but paying for travel to the clinic, a hotel and child care twice would be a hardship.
Cauterucci continued:
“As a Satanist, Mary said, she believes her body is ‘inviolable’ —thus, a mandatory waiting period with no medical justification that hampers her bodily autonomy inflicts a ‘substantial burden’ on her ‘sincerely held religious beliefs,’ as does the law that requires she be informed that ‘abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.’”
The federal case was thrown out in 2016 because Mary was no longer pregnant.
But in this topsy-turvy world, Missouri legislator Rep. Mike Moon slaughtered a chicken on camera in June to protest abortion.
“God gave us man dominion over life. He allows us to raise animals properly and care for them and then process them for food so we can sustain life. And that’s what I’m doing here with this chicken,” Moon said before beheading and gutting the animal in a graphic video posted to Facebook.
Multiple petitions popped up on the internet calling for Moon’s removal from office.
Correction: This article has been revised to remove all references or suggestions that Satanists worship Satan as an entity or being.
According to The Satanic Temple: “Satan is symbolic of the Eternal Rebel in opposition to arbitrary authority, forever defending personal sovereignty even in the face of insurmountable odds. Satan is an icon for the unbowed will of the unsilenced inquirer… the heretic who questions sacred laws and rejects all tyrannical impositions. Ours is the literary Satan best exemplified by Milton and the Romantic Satanists, from Blake to Shelley, to Anatole France.”
