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The Satantic Temple uses Hobby Lobby ruling to claim religious exemption from anti-choice biased counseling laws

BlackHolesmembership_largeCiting the Hobby Lobby ruling, the Satanic Temple is claiming a religious exemption from the anti-choice “informed consent” laws that require abortion providers in 35 states to give out biased, sometimes false, information about the procedure.

Given that “the Supreme Court has decided that religious beliefs are so sacrosanct that they can even trump scientific fact,” the Temple says it expects its “deeply held belief” will be respected. After all, unlike Hobby Lobby’s, their belief is even based on actually accurate information. 

And you don’t need to be an official Temple member to claim this exception too. “All women who aren’t member share our deeply held belief that their personal choices should be made with access to the best available information, undiluted by biased or false information, are free to seek protection with this exemption,” a spokesperson say. Why yes, in fact, I do — I share that belief very much.

The Temple has helpfully provided a letter that people seeking an abortion can print out to explain to their doctor that they are exempt from informed consent mandates:

I regard any information required by state statute to be communicated or offered to me as a precondition for an abortion (separate and apart from any other medical procedure) is based on politics and not science (“Political Information”). I regard Political Information as a state sanctioned attempt to discourage abortion by compelling my consideration of the current and future condition of my fetal or embryonic tissue separate and apart from my body. I do not regard Political Information to be scientifically true or accurate or even relevant to my medical decisions. The communication of Political Information to me imposes an unwanted and substantial burden on my religious beliefs.

I don’t know about you, but the Temple, a relatively young sect with an already rich history of trolling religious conservatives, might have just gotten a new convert.

Maya DusenberyMaya believes “one’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.”

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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