US Satanists Open Ritual Abortion Clinic (Worthy News Investigation)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – Satanists on Wednesday joined Democrats in their fight to extend abortion rights across the United States by opening a health clinic providing “free religious medication abortion.”
The facility in New Mexico, run by the Satanic Temple group, was called the “Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic.”
It mocks Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote last year’s opinion that overturned the Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion across the United States. “In 1950, Samuel Alito’s mother did not have options, and look what happened,” said Malcolm Jarry, a co-founder of The Satanic Temple, in a statement.
“Prior to 1973, doctors who performed abortions could lose their licenses and go to jail. The clinic’s name serves to remind people just how important it is to have the right to control one’s body and the potential ramifications of losing that right,” he added.
TST Health, the new medical arm of The Satanic Temple and dubbed “the first-ever religious abortion clinic network,” provides the screenings and arranges abortion pills at the clinic.
Most services are free of charge as long as patients participate in an obligatory “abortion ritual,” the group said in a statement seen by Worthy News. “The ritual involves the recitation of two of our Tenets and a personal affirmation that is ceremoniously intertwined with the abortion,” The Satanic Temple confirmed.
However, patients must still pay for medications from a pharmacy, which typically costs around $90, according to the TST Health website.
RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS
It stressed that “prerequisite procedures such as waiting periods, mandatory viewing of sonograms, and compulsory counseling contravene Satanists’ religious convictions.”
That’s why “those who perform the religious abortion ritual are exempt from these requirements,” The Satanic Temple noted, referring to legislation in several U.S. states.
It said those seeking abortion “can receive first-trimester abortions on demand in states that have enacted the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” The Satanists explained that “The Satanic Temple is committed to supporting its LGBTQIA+ members.” It wasn’t immediately clear how the “reproductive rights” or abortion would be provided to members not born a female. However, “Bodily autonomy has been a central pillar of The Satanic Temple’s mission since its founding,” it argued.
The Satanic Temple made clear it wants to expand abortion operations into other states, including those that do not allow clinicians to perform these procedures.
The nontheistic religious group also distributes flyers targeting Crisis Pregnancy Centers, often backed by churches, so-called “pro-life” groups, and other anti-abortion activists. A brochure obtained by Worthy News warned visitors to be aware that they “will NOT receive an abortion” at those facilities.
And, The Satanic Temple condemned the U.S. states of Indiana and Arkansas as they “successfully passed laws requiring health care facilities to bury or cremate fetal remains.” Those remains “from spontaneous or induced abortion or ectopic pregnancy” can be buried or cremated “regardless of their patient’s wishes.”
This “clearly constitutes a violation of the long-established domain of religious entities to handle the remains of the deceased,” The Satanic Temple claimed. “TST asserts its religious right to treat human tissue as medical waste,” the Satanists complained, reflecting their general opinion about life issues.
666 DOLLARS
The Satanic Temple has been enabling online donations, including $666, while supporters giving less are encouraged to “add 66 cents” after their amounts, Worthy News established.
Founded in 2012, the U.S.-based group also has congregations in Canada, Australia, Britain, Finland, and Germany, well-informed sources say. Their abortus initiative comes despite concerns among Christians about at least hundreds of thousands of pregnancy terminations already carried out in the United States annually.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the respected Guttmacher Institute provided different figures for 2020; the most recent year data were published.
The CDC said there were 620,327 abortions nationally in 2020 in the District of Columbia and 47 states, a 1.5 percent decrease from 629,898 in 2019.
Guttmacher’s national total for 2020 was 930,160, a 1.5 percent increase from 916,460 in 2019.
Data analysts said Guttmacher’s figures are higher than the CDC’s partly because it includes data (and in some instances, estimates) from all 50 U.S. states.
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