The law, known as the “Texas Heartbeat Act”, bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which usually takes place at six weeks -- before many women even know they are pregnant.
Reese Witherspoon, Eva Longoria Baston and P!nk were among celebrities criticizing the bill. “It’s pretty simple. We should all be able to make decisions about our health & future,” tweeted “Desperate Housewives” star Longoria Baston.
Now the Satanic Temple, a nontheistic religious group based in Salem, Massachusetts, has joined the fight to protect women’s access to abortion pills in Texas.
The Temple has filed a letter with the US Food and Drug Administration, reports Fortune.
The letter states that their members should be free to access abortion drugs without recourse to regulatory action. The body claims its status as a religious organisation guarantees its members the right to abortion under the US Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
The RFRA allows faith-based groups certain rights. It was created in the context of Native American religions that have historically faced discrimination for certain practices, such as the use of peyote - a psychoactive cactus used in religious ceremonies.
The Satanic Temple claim that the RFRA should guarantee Satanists’ access to the abortion drugs Misoprostol and Mifepristone.
In a statement, Satanic Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves said:
“I am sure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton—who famously spends a good deal of his time composing press releases about Religious Liberty issues in other states—will be proud to see that Texas’s robust Religious Liberty laws, which he so vociferously champions, will prevent future Abortion Rituals from being interrupted by superfluous government restrictions meant only to shame and harass those seeking an abortion.”
Despite its name, the Satanic Temple operates primarily as an activist group which advocates for personal rights and the separation of church and state. Its members believe in neither God nor the devil.
