Satanic Temple Member Fights Abortion Law In Missouri High Court

JEFFERSON CITY, MO — Missouri's highest court is hearing arguments from a member of the Satanic Temple over whether the state's strict abortion requirements violated her right to religious freedom. An attorney for the woman on Tuesday asked the state Supreme Court to block the state's mandatory three-day waiting period for abortions. The attorney also sought to block requirements that doctors who perform abortions give women a booklet that says "the life of each human being begins at conception," offer them an ultrasound and give them a chance to hear the fetal heartbeat.

Three years ago, the woman traveled from southeastern Missouri to St. Louis to get an abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic. She eventually obtained an abortion, but wrote a letter to her doctors saying some of the hurdles she had to clear conflicted with her beliefs to follow scientific understanding of the world.

The Satanic Temple doesn't literally believe in Satan, rather viewing the biblical Satan as a metaphor for rebellion against tyranny. The group has waged religious battles around country in recent years, including trying — unsuccessfully — to install a statue of the goat-headed idol Baphomet outside the Arkansas and Oklahoma state capitols as counterpoints to Ten Commandments monuments. Members also proposed "After School Satan Clubs" in elementary schools from Oregon to Georgia where evangelical Christian "Good News Clubs" are operating.

James MacNaughton, an attorney for the Satanic Temple member suing over Missouri's abortion restrictions, told the state Supreme Court that the government "should not be in the business of preaching."

"It is a bedrock principle of our culture (and) of our country that we choose for ourselves what to believe by way of religious beliefs," he said. "It's not the business of government to tell us that."

The state attorney general's office, which is defending the abortion restrictions, argues that Missouri laws protecting religious freedom don't apply. Solicitor General John Sauer told the court those laws protect the woman only if she's being blocked from practicing her beliefs or is being forced to do something against her religion. She's now fighting a booklet, for example, that she has said she's already read, Sauer said.

Judge Laura Denvir Stith also questioned MacNaughton on whether his client was forced to act against her religious beliefs, noting that doctors must provide the booklet, but that doesn't mean women have to accept it.

"She wasn't forced to say she agreed with it," Stith said. "She was given a brochure but wasn't required to read it."

Twenty-seven states require a waiting period for an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a national research group that supports abortion rights. Missouri is one of four states with the longest waiting period — 72 hours.

By SUMMER BALLENTINE, Associated Press

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