The suit claims Indiana’s abortion laws violate the Constitution.
QUICK FACTS:
- The state of Indiana is being sued by The Satanic Temple (TST) because of a new abortion limitation bill that was just passed.
- The group claims the bill breaches the Constitution and the rights of its supporters.
- Republican governor of Indiana Eric Holcomb and attorney general Todd Rokita were named as defendants in the September 21 lawsuit.
- Currently, Indiana’s abortion law, which took effect on September 15, bans most abortions, with limited exceptions, including risk to the mother or lethal fetal anomalies.
TST’S CASE:
- “Members of TST hold the religious belief that an unwanted zygote, blastocyst, embryo, or nonviable fetus should be removed from the body of a pregnant woman. This belief is grounded in TST Tenet III that a woman’s body is inviolable, subject to her own will alone,” the lawsuit reads.
- The suit is based partially on the tenets of the organization, including Tenet V which says that “beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world.”
- In their suit, the group claims that members of TST “hold the religious belief that a zygote, blastocyst, embryo, and nonviable fetus are a part of a woman’s body and not imbued with an existence, humanity, or spiritual life separate and apart from the mother.”
BACKGROUND:
- The Satanic Temple is headquartered in Salem, Massachusetts, and has more than 1.5 million followers worldwide. There are apparently more than 11,300 of its members in Indiana.
- Following the Supreme Court’s decision in June to reverse Roe v. Wade, the group is not the only one to criticize Indiana’s new law. The White House has also been vocal in denouncing the new abortion restrictions in Indiana.
- “The Indiana Legislature took a devastating step as a result of the Supreme Court’s extreme decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and eliminate women’s constitutionally-protected right to abortion,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in an August statement. “And, it’s another radical step by Republican legislators to take away women’s reproductive rights and freedom, and put personal health care decisions in the hands of politicians rather than women and their doctors.”
