(LifeSiteNews) — Another federal court has rejected the far-left activist group The Satanic Temple’s (TST) claim that abortion bans violate the religious freedom of Satanists, this time in Indiana.
TST is a 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 or the devil literally exist. It is primarily known for various attention-grabbing stunts for various left-wing causes, including LGBT “pride” and against religious displays on public property, relying on its “Satanic” identity for shock value.
PBS affiliate WFYI reported that TST filed a challenge last year against Indiana’s ban on most abortions, arguing that the law violates the U.S. Constitution and the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act by discriminating on the basis of the circumstances of an abortion seeker’s pregnancy, forcing pregnant women to undergo the conditions of “slavery,” and “taking” uteruses by preventing Satanists from performing the “abortion ritual[s].”
On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson of the Southern District of Indiana rejected TST’s case, finding that the group comprehensively failed to demonstrate that it was injured by the law, including its refusal to even name any its members or leaders, a prerequisite to establish standing to even bring the lawsuit by producing specific individuals whose claims of being harmed by the law could be evaluated.
“The Satanic Temple had an opportunity to submit evidence,” Magnus-Stinson wrote. “It had notice of its standing defects. And it was given the opportunity to cure them. It has failed on all fronts. Ultimately, the Satanic Temple has failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence those facts essential for granting standing.”
“This lawsuit was ridiculous on its face, but this court decision is important because it sustains a pro-life law that is constitutionally and legally sound,” Indiana Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita responded to the news. “We Hoosiers continue to build a solid culture of life whether satanic cultists like it or not.”
TST, which has unsuccessfully challenged abortion bans in other states, has claimed that protecting preborn life “infringes upon our members’ rights to engage with their chosen religion and to participate in religious rites and rituals.”