The Satanic Temple, which has taken an activist stance in the pro-choice movement, filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging Missouri's abortion laws mandating "informed consent" and a waiting period, claiming they violate their members' religious beliefs.
A Satanist member identified only as Mary Doe was denied an abortion at a Planned Parenthood office last month because of the restrictions, and
the Satanic Temple sued the state last month seeking a religious exemption.
The new lawsuit, which
the St. Louis Sun Times reports is aimed at similar abortion rules throughout the United States, claims Missouri’s standards – that life begins at conception and that "a unique human being with a life of its own, separate and apart from the woman whose uterus it occupies"– promote religious beliefs in violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.
The clause forbids the government from establishing an official religion, or any government actions that favor one religion over another.
Satanic Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves
tells Salon.com the "informed consent" materials don’t just require women to comply with certain religious viewpoints, but also — in the case of Satanists — to contradict their own belief that women can decide for themselves.
"The question of when life begins is absolutely a religious opinion, and the state has no business proselytizing religious beliefs," Greaves said, Salon.com reports.
"Women of The Satanic Temple, deciding to terminate a pregnancy, and informed in their decision to do so by their adherence to Satanic tenets, are having their religious freedoms violated when subjected to state-mandated 'informed consent'
propaganda."
The lawsuit "couldn’t be any more urgent or crucial," Greaves told the St. Louis Sun Times.
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