Over the years, several states passed so-called trigger laws in anticipation of the Supreme Court overturning Roe. Idaho was one. Planned Parenthood sued to block the law from coming into effect. They lost in the Idaho Supreme Court. On August 25th, the law’s provisions — a complete abortion ban, except to save the pregnant woman’s life and in the case of rape and incest came into effect.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state claiming the abortion ban violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). This law requires hospitals that receive payments from Medicare to provide medical care to stabilize all patients who come to the hospital with a medical emergency — which in some pregnant women might require an abortion.
A US District Court granted a stay in that limited circumstance. So far, no further action is on the books.
The Satanic Temple has filed their own suit. This religious organization argues the state’s abortion laws are unconstitutional violations of property rights, the equal protection clause, religious freedom, and involuntary servitude.
The Idaho Capital Sun reported the details of the case
Attorneys for the religious group argue that the uterus of an “involuntarily pregnant woman” is a physical thing to which property rights apply because eggs can be retained or removed, the uterus itself can be removed for any purpose, and it can be rented to a third party as a gestational carrier under a surrogacy agreement.
Those property rights cannot be violated by the state without just compensation, the lawsuit says, according to the Fifth and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
The Temple also says a pregnant person must provide a fetus with hormones, oxygen, nutrients, antibodies, body heat, and protection from external shocks and intrusions, which are all services that an involuntarily pregnant person would be forced to provide under the state’s abortion bans.
“The Idaho abortion bans provide no compensation or consideration to an involuntarily pregnant woman for providing the services necessary to sustain the life of a protected unborn child that occupies and uses her uterus,” the complaint reads. “The … (pregnant people) are put into a condition of involuntary servitude in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment.”
Attorneys also argue the bans require discrimination between people who become pregnant by accident and those who were raped, which the complaint said violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
That was outstanding. This part is even better,
Under the argument of religious freedom violations, the Temple said the state’s abortion bans prohibit members of the Temple from engaging in the Satanic Abortion Ritual. The ritual is grounded in the Temple’s tenets that a person’s body is theirs alone and not subject to violation by others. The ban, therefore, violates the state’s Exercise of Religious Freedom Act, according to the complaint.
I am sure the Supreme Court will eventually rule against the Temple. However, in so doing, they will shred whatever authority they have left on ‘religious freedom’. And further convince the majority of Americans, who already believe the Court is existentially compromised, that measures such as expanding the Court or limiting judicial terms are acceptable and must be enacted.
Of course, this assumes that SCOTUS does not strip the right of voters in red states to have their votes counted by handing election decisions to states’ legislatures.
We will have to see.
Bonus material about the Satanic Temple. What is it? It is a non-theistic religion that reveres but does not worship a literary, not metaphysical, Satan. The organization views this Satan as a symbol of pragmatic skepticism, rational reciprocity, personal autonomy, and curiosity.
Its mission statement:
The Mission Of The Satanic Temple Is To Encourage Benevolence And Empathy, Reject Tyrannical Authority, Advocate Practical Common Sense, Oppose Injustice, And Undertake Noble Pursuits.
How it executes its mission:
We have publicly confronted hate groups, fought for the abolition of corporal punishment in public schools, applied for equal representation when religious installations are placed on public property, provided religious exemption and legal protection against laws that unscientifically restrict peoples' reproductive autonomy, exposed harmful pseudo-scientific practitioners in mental health care, organized clubs alongside other religious after-school clubs in schools besieged by proselytizing organizations, and engaged in other advocacy in accordance with our tenets.
Its seven fundamental tenets:
- One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
- The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
- One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
- The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own.
- Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.
- People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
- Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.
That is far more enlightened than any theistic religion I know.