(LifeSiteNews) — The atheist, far-left “troll” operation known as The Satanic Temple’s (TST) latest headline-grabbing venture is a telemed abortion facility cheekily named after the mother of one of the most pro-life judges in America.
In a recent issue, fashion/entertainment magazine Cosmopolitan covered TST Health, a self-described “collaborative of reproductive rights advocates and abortion care providers contracted and directed by The Satanic Temple to advance its Reproductive Religious Rights Campaign” by offering abortion pills by mail after a video consultation – a practice known as “webcam abortions.” The practice is even more dangerous than normal abortion pills because they are administered without medical oversight.
The service is available to New Mexico residents age 17 and up who are either TST members or are interested in performing an “abortion ritual,” a private, verbal “cast[ing] off” of “guilt, shame, and mental discomfort that a patient may be experiencing due to choosing to have a legal and medically safe abortion.”
While a nondescript acronym followed by the word “health” would not normally draw attention, a TST fundraiser for the entity reveals it also goes by another name: “Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic.” The page offers donors a variety of paraphernalia designed to amuse pro-abortion radicals, including “Get Out of Pregnancy Free” cards, a lunchbox bearing a cartoon suggesting Alito’s mother wishes she had aborted the sitting U.S. Supreme Court justice, and condoms packaged in wrappers bearing the likenesses of all nine justices and law-themed sexual innuendos.
When former President George W. Bush nominated Alito for the nation’s highest court in 2005, his mother, Rose Alito, famously told reporters that “of course he’s against abortion” amid Republican wariness of “stealth nominees.” Rose passed away in 2013; her son went on to write the majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Cosmo’s story on the “clinic,” written by Arielle Domb, opens with a recap of how Rose gave birth to Samuel in 1950, well before Roe forced legal abortion nationwide. But while admitting it “unlikely that Rose ever considered abortion for herself,” Domb asks, “what if her circumstances had been different” as a segue into suggesting TST’s naming of the center after her was done “in her honor.”
“The seriousness of our intent and beliefs is reflected in our work,” claims “ordained minister of Satan” and TST spokesperson Chalice Blythe. “Having a sense of humor about it is not a bad thing.”
Notably, the article acknowledges that TST’s antics have not been received by all fellow pro-aborts in the Land of Enchantment.
“The anti-abortion groups took it as proof that abortion is evil. It just played completely into their narrative — and strengthened it,” New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice executive director Joan Lamunyon Sanford says. While not objecting to TST’s supposed religious status, she added, “We have an issue with them using religion to be intentionally provocative — and coming in here assuming they know what we need.”
On the pro-life side, the key takeaway is summarized by a headline by Mercator editor Michael Cook: “What more proof do you want that abortion is Satanic?”
TST is a radical secular-leftist group that purports to embrace Satan’s name as a “symbol of the Eternal Rebel in opposition to arbitrary authority” while not believing that God, the devil, or other supernatural concepts literally exist, though it does promote Satanic rituals. It is known for agitating for an array of leftist causes, including abortion and LGBT “pride,” with the Satanic branding helping draw attention to its antics via shock value. During the Trump administration, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recognized TST as a church, granting it tax-exempt status and strengthening its claims for religious accommodation.
Among its activities in recent years have been “After School Satan Clubs” in various school districts across the country, which are billed as merely to help teach “benevolence and empathy, critical thinking, problem solving, creative expression, personal sovereignty,” and “compassion” through games, snacks, and other activities.
But various statements by TST and its officials indicate a more activist, adversarial purpose, such as to stand as an “alternative to the religious clubs that use threats of eternal damnation to convert school children to their belief system”; and After School Satan Club national director June Everett framing the project as a protest against school religious clubs, saying “if the good news club packs up and leaves town then we pack up and leave town as well.”