The Satanic Temple (TST) announced it had opened an online abortion clinic named “The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Abortion Clinic” in New Mexico Wednesday.
The Satanic Temple has long advocated for the right to religious abortions or religious abortion ceremonies in the past, even filing a lawsuit against Indiana’s abortion ban on the grounds that Satanists have a right to abortion that contradicts the state’s ban, according to TST’s website. TST announced Wednesday that it was opening the first religious abortion clinic titled “The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Abortion Clinic” likely in reference to Supreme Court Justice Alito who authored the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization majority opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade.
The clinic will serve anyone 17 years or older in New Mexico at the time of the visit, and patients must be no more than 11 weeks pregnant, according to the website. Services include financial assistance, emotional support, chemical abortions and religious support, as well as contraceptives.
TST posted the announcement on its Twitter account, citing the temple’s new Telehealth services for “use in the Religious Abortion Ritual.”
In our commitment to protecting bodily autonomy and assuring abortion access, we proudly introduce TST Health and our 1st Religious Telehealth Abortion Clinic, providing medical abortion medication via mail for use in the Religious Abortion Ritual! Visit https://t.co/a4U0wodhyB pic.twitter.com/Ls8reKZVo1
— The Satanic Temple (@satanic_temple_) February 1, 2023
Erin Helian, executive director of campaigns and religious reproductive rights director at TST, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the name of the clinic will serve as a reminder.
“Prior to 1973, doctors who performed abortions could lose their licenses and go to jail. In 1950, Samuel Alito’s mother did not have options,” Helian said. “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.”
The clinic serves a religious purpose because, according to the announcement, TST believes that abortions serve a religious purpose in protecting bodily autonomy. An abortion ritual is described as a “protective rite” that can “cast off unwanted feelings” a patient has about choosing an abortion, according to the website.
“The ritual serves to assist in affirming their decision and to ward off the effects of unjust persecution, which can cause one to stray from the paths of scientific reasoning and free will that TST Members strive to embody,” the website states. “The ritual consists solely of spoken words. TST’s abortion ritual is exclusively verbal.”
TST’s third tenet speaks to bodily autonomy and reads “[o]ne’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone,” while the fifth tenet argues that “[o]ne should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs,” according to the website.
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Republished with permission from Daily Caller News Foundation
