Missouri won another victory for life Tuesday when a federal court rejected a lawsuit from the Satanic Temple challenging the state abortion informed consent law.
The AP reports the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal by Satanic Temple member “Judy Doe,” who argued that the state was violating her religious freedom. Doe lost her case in federal court in 2019, but she appealed to the Eighth Circuit.
Her lawsuit challenged a Missouri informed consent law that requires abortion facilities to provide a pamphlet to women with information about their unborn baby’s development, the risks of abortion and resources available if they choose life for their unborn babies. One part of the pamphlet that the Satanic Temple specifically opposed was this: “The life of each human being begins at conception. Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.”
The Satanic Temple supports abortion. It claims the pamphlet includes “factually inaccurate” information that is “designed to dissuade women from getting an abortion.”
According to the Satanic group, the law violates 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.”
But the Eighth Circuit disagreed, pointing to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says “a state is free to use ‘its voice … to show its profound respect for’ life.” The court said Missouri’s statement on the beginning of human life is not an “establishment” of religion.
“Any theory of when life begins necessarily aligns with some religious beliefs and not others,” the court wrote. “So under Doe’s theory, Missouri’s only option would be to avoid legislating in this area altogether.”
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“’Roe v. Wade implies no limitation on the authority of a State to make a value judgment favoring childbirth over abortion,’” the court continued.
Two of the judges were nominated by President Donald Trump and the third was nominated by President George W. Bush.
Samuel H. Lee of Campaign Life Missouri said the ruling is great news for the state.
“Because of pro-life lawmakers’ hard work over the decades, in 2018 the fewest number of abortions were sought by Missouri residents since those that were obtained by residents in 1973,” Lee said. “Now, with the lower courts upholding the constitutionality of pro-life laws, it is long past time for the U.S. Supreme Court to once and for all reverse Roe v. Wade, and allow lawmakers to completely protect human life from conception to natural death.”
The radical Satanic group has been trying to stop fact-based laws in Missouri for years. Contrary to the group’s claims, it is well accepted that a unique, new human life comes into being at conception. Numerous medical textbooks, prominent scientists and even some abortion activists admit that life begins at conception and abortions kill human beings.
In 2019, the Missouri Supreme Court dismissed another one of the Satanic Temple’s lawsuits. Judge Laura Denvir Stith and four fellow justices said the Satanic Temple member could have refused to accept the pamphlet.
The Satanic Temple is heavily involved in abortion activism in the U.S. Its members have filed multiple lawsuits challenging state abortion regulations.
Some of its members also attempt to intimidate peaceful pro-life sidewalk counselors through gruesome protests. In 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 once described the Satanic Temple’s actions as a “pro-abortion crusade to come to the aid of America’s largest abortion provider,” Planned Parenthood.
