A federal judge in the Southern District of Texas has dismissed a lawsuit filed by The Satanic Temple (TST) challenging the state’s pro-life laws.
TST filed a lawsuit on behalf of a woman named Ann Doe, claiming the abortion was necessary for Doe to perform her “abortion rituals.” The lawsuit asserts that laws restricting abortion violate the group’s rights to religious freedom. “The abortion ritual requires an abortion; and confirmed [Doe’s] religious subscription to the Third and Fifth Tenets of TST,” the suit claims. TST goes so far as to define abortion as a “sacrament.”
“The Satanic Abortion Ritual is a sacrament that surrounds and includes the abortive act. It is designed to combat feelings of guilt, doubt, and shame and to empower the member to assert or reassert power and control over their own mind and body,” TST wrote in its 2021 lawsuit.
READ: For 14 years, Megan buried her shame from an abortion. Then he turned to God.
In his reigning, Judge Charles Eskridge called the lawsuit’s claims “reserve and extraordinary mystery.” He points out that the TST does not offer an explanation of the supposed “religious laws,” nor does it explain the “ritual” that requires abortion or its third and fifth principles.
“Instead, their broad and conclusory allegations are devoid of actual facts, at most offering ‘labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action,'” he wrote, adding, “Given the detail of prior complaints and these major changes in the law, the deficiencies in the operative complaint are undoubtedly intentional.”
Arielle Del Turco, director of the Family Research Council’s Center for Religious Liberty, said The Washington Stand that he believes lawsuits like this are nothing more than a publicity stunt.
“The Satanic Temple considers it a victory when they can destroy deeply held religious beliefs by pretending that their legal complaints based on ‘religious freedom’ are legitimate and deserve the same consideration given to religions like Christianity,” he said. “It’s good to see that the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas rejected the Satanic Temple’s lawsuit. People know it’s a stunt, and we shouldn’t fall for their game.”
