A Satanic Temple’s “Mary Doe” says her religious beliefs were violated by Missouri’s informed consent law that required her to wait 72 hours before having an abortion in May 2015.
The “Greene County resident” in court documents describes having been forced to view an ultrasound of the fetus, and pledging to clinic staff that she’d read a booklet which includes the line, the “life of every human being begins at conception.”
Ms. Doe told 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 reads.
“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.”
“There will be a showdown with Satan on Tuesday in the Missouri Supreme Court,” reports NBC News:
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.”
The state will be represented by lawyers from the office of Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, who is one of the defendants named in Doe’s lawsuit along with Gov. Eric Greitens, who is currently embroiled in a steamy sex scandal.
[IMAGE: A one-ton, 7-foot (2.13-m) bronze statue of Baphomet — a goat-headed winged deity that has been associated with satanism and the occult — is displayed by the Satanic Temple during its opening in Salem, Massachusetts, U.S. September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Ted Siefer]