Posted on 01/24/2018 6:08:30 AM PST by Morgana
The Missouri Supreme Court will hear a Satanist’s argument this week against a state informed consent law that she alleges violates her religious freedom.
NBC News reports the court is scheduled to hear the Satanic Temple’s appeal Tuesday. A federal judge threw out the case in 2016, saying the plaintiff, “Mary Doe,” a member of the Satanic Temple, failed to show “sufficiently concrete injuries.”
The Satanic Temple alleges that Missouri trampled on Doe’s religious rights by requiring that she undergo an ultrasound and receive information about her unborn baby’s development, abortion risks and alternatives to abortion. The state law also requires that a woman take 72 hours to consider the information before going through with the abortion.
“Missouri’s state-mandated informed consent booklets explicitly say that life begins at conception, which is a nonmedical religious viewpoint that many people disagree with,” said Satanic Temple leader Jex Blackmore in a statement Monday. “Forcing women to read this information and then wait 72-hours to consider the State’s opinion is a clear violation of the Establishment Clause.”
However, state attorneys said the Satanists’ case is weak.
“Even if Doe has alleged a restriction on free exercise (of religion), the Informed Consent Law clearly serves compelling state interests and is not unduly restrictive on Doe’s asserted exercise of religion,” they said in court papers on Sept. 21.
Here’s more from the report:
Doe advised the doctors at the St. Louis clinic that “she adheres to principles of the Satanic temple and has sincerely held religious beliefs different from the information in the informed consent booklet,” the case summary states.
“Specifically, her letter advised she has deeply held religious beliefs that a nonviable fetus is not a separate human being but is part of her body and that abortion of a nonviable fetus does not terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.”
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Jex Blackmore, a spokeswoman for the Satanic Temple, said the woman’s religious rights were ignored.
“The State has essentially established a religious indoctrination program intended to push a single ideological viewpoint,” Blackmore said in a statement. “The law is intended to punish women who disagree with this opinion.”
According to the Satanists, informed consent laws violate two core tenants of their beliefs: First, “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone,” and, second, “Beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs.”
However, the Missouri informed consent law is based on scientific facts, not Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or any other religion’s beliefs. Scientifically, it is well established that a unique new human life comes into being at the moment of conception. Likewise, the information women receive as part of informed consent — facts about their unborn baby’s development and abortion risks – also are backed up by strong scientific research.
The Satanists have attacked other state informed consent laws, too. In 2015, Blackmore wrote a blog about aborting her unborn baby to attack abortion regulations in Michigan. She called her unborn baby’s abortion death “surreal,” and received media attention for her writing.
The Satanic Temple also mercilessly mocks and attempts to intimidate peaceful pro-life sidewalk counselors through gruesome protests. In April 2016, pro-life advocates outside of a Detroit, Michigan Planned Parenthood faced a disturbing scene when a group from the Satanic Temple arrived to counter-protest wearing baby masks and carrying whips. They held a similar protest on Good Friday in 2017.
Breitbart described the Satanic Temple’s actions as a “pro-abortion crusade to come to the aid of America’s largest abortion provider,” Planned Parenthood.
Taxes violate my religious beliefs. Can I sue to overturn them?
Actually, it's a biological fact that many people "disagree" with. Talk about being anti-science.
“Taxes violate my religious beliefs. Can I sue to overturn them?”
If you establish a religion, the money going to the church and employees can be exempt from tax.
I did some research on an abortionist at the county tax office. Found out he registered his abortion clinic as a church. But, he did it in such a way that you would have to search out all of his records, on purpose, in order to find it.
So, all those little babies, (and big babies because he was the guy in town who did 3rd trimester abortions) all those babies died being a part of his "religion" and it was all tax-free.
That was in the late 1980s when no city, state or federal department would touch an abortion clinic even to enforce fire codes.
Who determines the legitimacy of a relegion? How is this or Islam given a pass as relegion?
We make laws, and everyone MUST follow them. A law that applies to only some people is invalid. There are to be NO exceptions. Religions cannot claim an exception.
The reality is, that politicians ALLOW members of certain religions to do whatever they want, in order to keep the votes and money coming.
They sure do think they are the smartest people in the room.
If the gop-e were smart, and they're not, they'd run with this and link the dims with Satanists.
Islam also practices human sacrifice of infidels.
This must be their sacrament, since satan demands the blood sacrifice of infants. He hates LIFE worst of all. Nothing proves LIFE like the conception of a new soul.
We have truly lost this country if Satanists are able to overthrow laws designed to minimize (not outlaw, as it should be) abortion. Once the Supreme Court ruled in many rulings that the US was not based on Judeo-Christian principles, it set the stage for this sad development.
Giving someone information and wanting them to make an informed choice does NOT violate any religious beliefs.
Nor does making them wait a few days.
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