The Satanic Temple has challenged abortion restrictions prevalent in the state after a member argued before the Missouri Supreme Court that they violate her “deeply held religious beliefs”.
Identified anonymously in court documents as Mary Doe, the petitioner won her state appeals petition last year with the court ruling that Missouri’s law requiring an ultrasound of her fetus prior to an abortion could be violating ” the Religion Clause rights of pregnant women”.
Under Missouri’s abortion law a mandatory three-day waiting period is needed and it includes other requirements like a woman seeking an abortion must read a booklet, view an ultrasound and hear the fetal heartbeat. Doe’s lawsuit alleges these requirements violate constitutional religious freedom.
Law Punishes Women Who Disagree With Religious Viewpoint
According to a media report, the Satanic Temple, which has filed a lawsuit on Doe’s behalf, has presented oral arguments for the case which is slated to head to the state’s highest court.
Jex Blackmore, a Satanic Temple spokeswoman, said in an earlier statement that the state had “essentially established a religious indoctrination program” aiming to “promote a religious viewpoint” that life starts right at conception. He further added that Missouri’s law aims to punish women “who disagree with this opinion.”
The Satanic Temple is a religious organization, which has grabbed headlines in recent years acting as a foil to religious influence in government by making demands like asking for a statue of Baphomet on public grounds.
Religious Objections Not Stated ‘Sufficiently’
As per case records, Doe became pregnant in February 2015 and asked for an abortion at a St. Louis clinic that May. The clinic offered Doe to hear her fetus’ heartbeat during an ultrasound and gave her a booklet that “states that human life begins at conception.”
She underwent the abortion after the required 72-hour waiting period, despite submitting to doctors a letter beforehand stating her “deeply held religious beliefs” that a non-viable fetus is not considered “as a separate human being” but is part of her body and that an abortion doesn’t terminate “a separate, unique, living human being.”
The question under debate is whether Doe “sufficiently stated” her religious objection to the law.
According to Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley’s office, Doe “failed to allege any conflict between her putative Satanic beliefs” and the state’s law. In her ruling Judge Laura Denvir Stith stated that while doctors need to provide the booklet, Doe “wasn’t required to read it,” and wasn’t “forced to say she agreed with it.”
