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AUSTIN, Texas, December 6, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — The Satanic Temple is publicly defying a new Texas law set to take effect December 19 that requires respectful treatment of aborted babies.

The Satanic group posted an Instagram on Saturday opposed to the Texas law, which requires aborted babies to be buried or cremated. Previously, aborted babies were incinerated and discarded in landfills.

The Satanists declared that they will not obey the new Texas law. It is unclear what the Satanic declaration actually means because the law applies to healthcare workers in hospitals and abortuaries.

The group denounced the pro-life law because “burial rites are a well-established component of religious practice,” which, apparently by implication, they oppose.  

Its official followers use statues and idols of the devil as a symbol to promote secularism and legally fight the influence of Judeo-Christian values in society.

Ironically, the Satanic statement says “members of The Satanic Temple believe in the inviolability of the body and, as such, these rules contradict our fundamental beliefs.” The body they consider “inviolable” is unclear; it is not the baby's body, but neither is it the mother's because she has already aborted and expelled her baby.

The Satanic statement goes into detail about their First Amendment right to practice abortion as a central tenant of Satanism, but the Texas law does not abridge abortion rights.

In the group’s Instagram post, it claims that the Texas law to respectfully bury or cremate aborted babies was passed “to harass and burden women who terminate their pregnancies.”

The law was passed under Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, who said aborted babies should not be “treated like medical waste and disposed of in landfills.”

The demonic group has also fought to set up a monument of Satan adjacent to the display of the Ten Commandments at the Oklahoma State Capitol, an “After School Satan Club” for public school students in Oregon, and prayer worshipping “the Dark Lord” at an Alaskan council meeting.

The group's leaders claim that one of the tenets of Satanism is that abortion is a “sacrament,” and that pro-life laws violate Satanists' religious beliefs.