In accordance with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), first trimester abortions are now exempt from unnecessary regulations for all individuals practicing The Satanic Temple's (TST) religious abortion ritual.
What is a (shudder) Satanic Abortion Ritual?
The Satanic abortion ritual claims to ’sanctify’ the abortion process by instilling confidence and protecting bodily rights when undergoing the unGodly procedure.
It is no secret that avowed Satanists are vocal abortion activists. For years, members of the Satanic Temple have participated in anti-Life protests and filed spurious lawsuits against Pro-Life laws. The latest antics from the Satanic Temple include the invention of an “abortion ritual,” which the groups claims is a religious rite for Satanists.
According to this sick position, the Satanic Temple claims that abortion on demand is a protected religious practice. In the illogic of abortion activists and Satanists, laws protecting individuals’ conscience rights and religious practices should be used to allow for the killing of preborn babies.
According to the Satanic Temple, this “abortion ritual,” nowhere mentioned in all previous anti-Life lobbying, means that laws protecting religious practice now protect the killing of preborn babies. The Satanic Temple’s announcement states that under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), “first trimester abortions are now exempt from unnecessary regulations for all individuals practicing The Satanic Temple’s religious abortion ritual.”
Those “unnecessary regulations” include Life-saving measures like waiting periods, informed consent, and ultrasounds, all of which give mothers the opportunity to see their children and learn about their development. Without these measures, the predatory abortion industry operates with impunity, dehumanizing preborn babies and taking money for ending the lives of children in the womb without obtaining informed consent.
Part of the reason Satanists claim that they invented the “ritual” was because even they had to acknowledge mothers’ suffering following abortion.
Of course, while acknowledging the pain of abortion, Satanists fail to acknowledge the real reason for the pain and grief suffered by so many following an abortion decision. According to Satanists, this suffering is the result of “shame” and “stigma” induced by Pro-Life laws, not from a violated conscience in rebellion to the transcendent Law of God.
Satanic Temple Sues Lamar Advertising
In other news, the Satanic Temple (TST) announced Wednesday it is suing an advertising company (Lamar) because it refused to display some billboards promoting a ritual offered by the group to help people bypass abortion rules in some states.
Based in Salem, Massachusetts (of course), the TST has sued Lamar Advertising in Arkansas state court. The suit accuses the Louisiana-based company of religious discrimination.
TST says Lamar refused to display eight billboards in Arkansas and Indiana promoting what the group calls its "religious abortion ritual." The group describes the ritual as a "sacramental act that confirms the right of bodily autonomy."
By performing the ritual, the group says, people can claim a religious exemption from mandatory waiting periods, counseling, ultrasounds and other measures that some states require before an abortion can be performed. The group says it submitted five designs to Lamar to be displayed near pro-life pregnancy centers.
The Satanic Temple claims their abortion ritual as practiced by its members is exempt from the existing abortion regulations on the basis of religious liberty. The group says all abortions by its members are religious acts of Satanism and protected under the ruling.
I wonder what the position of the SDA Church’s RL pundits is regarding the TST’s religious liberty claims. Some of them may support the TST’s argument on this issue.
In my personal opinion, this story helps make the pro-life case by revealing the evil "religious abortion ritual" of those who follow the Evil One; the archenemy of Jesus, who by contrast is Life and Truth (Jn. 14:6). Knowingly or not, all those who support killing a developing, innocent human, inside or outside the womb, are doing the work of Satan.
****