KANSAS CITY, Missouri, February 15, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Judgment came early for Missouri Satanists.
The New York-based Satanic Temple, an admittedly secular and not religious group, sued the state of Missouri over its informed consent laws, which require medical information and biological facts to be shared with a woman contemplating the major surgery of abortion 72 hours before she goes under the knife. “Mary Doe,” the plaintiff, said the informed consent laws violated her religious freedom, specifically to practice the Satanic “sacrament” of abortion.
Cole County Circuit Judge Joe Beteem dismissed the lawsuit, saying “Doe” failed to allege facts giving her a just claim under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The Missouri attorney general's office also argued that “Doe's” disagreement with the contents of the informed consent pamphlets was not a legal basis to sue: “Nothing in [the informed consent law] requires the Plaintiff to agree with the content of the state-mandated written materials anyway. The statute doesn't even require that the Plaintiff read the materials.”
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Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mathew D. Staver told LifeSiteNews, “The suit should have been dismissed because it is frivolous. The [informed consent] law in no way interferes with anyone's religion.”
Attorney Staver added, “The Satanic group may be steeped in the culture of death, but they have no right to bring such a baseless lawsuit.”
Satanism and Satanists have become more popular, or at least more visible, in pro-abortion circles. In one increasingly common incident last year in Texas, a group of pro-abortion demonstrators fighting a pro-life bill shouted, “Hail, Satan!” repeatedly.
Undaunted, Satanic Temple leaders say they are going to try suing the state of Missouri over informed consent again.
The Satanic Temple has gained national attention through their efforts to erect a Satanic monument adjacent to the display of the Ten Commandments outside the Oklahoma State Capitol.
