Attorneys for Texas moved Friday to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Satanic Temple that alleged the state’s abortion laws violate members’ constitutional right to participate in a “satanic abortion ritual.”
Plaintiffs failed to allege “any actual conflict between the Satanic abortion ritual and the challenged statutes” and lack standing in asking the Federal District Court of the Southern District of Texas to throw out the state’s abortion rules on First Amendment grounds, Texas argued.
The Satanic Temple filed its complaint against the state on Feb. 5 on behalf of itself and “Ann Doe,” one of its members, claiming Texas’s abortion regulations infringe on members’ First Amendment rights to practice their religion as exercised through what they call an abortion ritual.
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The ritual is a “ceremonial affirmation of self-worth and bodily autonomy that integrates the abortive process,” according to the Satanic Temple’s website.
It “can be performed to address definable concerns or to overcome unproductive feelings” and involves a list of actions and affirmations of Satanic beliefs, according to court documents.
The complaint was filed a day before Doe was scheduled to have an abortion appointment and alleged that her “religious objections will be overrun and her participation in the Satanic Abortion Ritual will be substantially interfered with” because of Texas’s informed consent abortion law.
The law requires a pregnant woman to view the results of a sonogram and have the results explained to her, with some exceptions. She must then wait 24 hours after the sonogram to undergo the abortion.
“From the perspective of a Satanist, abortion regulations place the state in the role of tyrant-king which claims divine authority to in an effort [sic] to make the Satanist feel guilt, doubt, and shame on an issue of religious significance,” the plaintiff’s complaint stated.
“By officiating the Satanic abortion ritual, Ms. Doe … will be uttering religiously charged speech and will be engaging in religious conduct,” it continued.
Texas argued in its motion that the plaintiffs failed to establish a violation of the Supreme Court’s abortion precedent in Planned Parenthood v. Casey or a violation of the free exercise clause and that their claims are meritless.
“The Satanic abortion ritual occurs immediately prior to a surgical or medical abortion,” Texas’s motion stated. “But the challenged statutes set out requirements that must be satisfied 2 to 24 hours before the abortion — in other words, by the time Doe was preparing to carry out the Satanic abortion ritual, the requirements … would have already been met and would not, therefore, serve as a barrier to her free speech and free exercise during the ritual.”
The Satanic Temple’s complaint was filed before Texas expanded its abortion regulations to include a ban on abortions after the detection of a heartbeat. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed the “heartbeat bill” on May 19.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to counsel for Texas and the Satanic Temple but did not immediately receive a response.
