There's a new player in the fight to save abortion rights in Texas: The Satanic Temple
![There's a new player in the fight to save abortion rights in Texas: The Satanic Temple](https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNzQwMjcyOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTc0MTMwOTQxNn0.anSGaVAx9bLELQKPwHcTFrkTGNMOa-hz2dxgE4frWT4/img.jpg?width=1200&height=800&quality=85&coordinates=256%2C0%2C0%2C0)
A new Texas law that went into effect last week criminalizes all abortions performed after the fetus develops a heartbeat, which is at around six weeks. That means that nearly 85% of all abortions that took place in the state are now considered illegal.
Critics of the new law say it's a major violation of a woman's right to bodily autonomy. It also has major religious connotations. The pro-life movement that's been fighting to end abortion rights has been powered by conservative Christian activists for decades.
When signing the law, the Governor of Texas made it clear that the law is a way for Christians to force their beliefs on the population as a whole.
"Our creator endowed us with the right to life, and yet millions of children lose their right to life every year because of abortion," Abbott stated while signing the law.
Strangely, The Bible has nothing to say about abortion.
Abortion laws in TX violate our religious rights and TST has taken legal action. If TX judges abide by the Constitution and legal precedent, then those who share our deeply held beliefs will be exempt from the state\u2019s inappropriate efforts to restrict access to abortion services.— The Satanic Temple (@The Satanic Temple) 1630584013
One "religious" group is fighting back against the draconian abortion laws in Texas because it believes that "religion can, and should, be divorced from superstition."
The Satanic Temple, headquartered in Salem, Massachusetts, filed a letter with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to request that its members have access to abortion pills using its Religious Freedom Restoration Act rights. Having abortion pills readily available could make it easier to bypass the new Texas law.
The same rights allow Native Americans to access the hallucinogenic drug peyote for their spiritual rituals.
The Temple is a quasi-religious organization that claims it doesn't believe "in the existence of Satan or the supernatural" but that religious freedom law should apply to all religions.
"Religions have special privileges under the First Amendment and RFRA. The Satanic Temple is utilizing these privileges to protect our religious belief in bodily autonomy - we're taking our fight to the next level," Temple cofounder Lucien Greaves said in a statement.
"As the courts affirm the rights of religious organizations to practice their faith, TST is demanding our religious rights to abortion access without unnecessary state interference," he added.
"I am sure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — who famously spends a good deal of his time composing press releases about Religious Liberty issues in other states — will be proud to see that Texas's robust Religious Liberty laws, which he so vociferously champions, will prevent future Abortion Rituals from being interrupted by superfluous government restrictions meant only to shame and harass those seeking an abortion," the statement continues.
Shoutout to @satanic_temple_ for protecting my reproductive rights.pic.twitter.com/YqhG56tJLM— CEO of \u209c\u2091\u2093\u2090\u209b (@CEO of \u209c\u2091\u2093\u2090\u209b) 1630691548
If you live in Texas, @satanic_temple_ is fighting to give you a religious right to abortion under their faith as one of their 7 tenets is about body autonomy.— Trinity \ud83e\udd40\ud83c\udf3c ($10 premium) (@Trinity \ud83e\udd40\ud83c\udf3c ($10 premium)) 1630638539
Have you heard the good word of Satan?https://twitter.com/satanic_temple_/status/1291078333707489281\u00a0\u2026— Matt (@Matt) 1630548795
The Temple says its access to abortion pills is made possible by a precedent set by the Supreme Court's 2014 Hobby Lobby decision. The decision prevents the government from putting a "burden on free exercise of religion without a compelling reason."
The Satanic Temple places a very high priority on bodily autonomy. Its third tenet reads: "One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone. One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone."
Satanists unveil Baphomet statue at Arkansas Capitol https://nyp.st/2BiAv8U\u00a0pic.twitter.com/9i5u2t4x9X— New York Post (@New York Post) 1534572530
This isn't the first time that the Temple has fought for the separation of church and state. It caused a huge stir in 2018 when it protested a Ten Commandments monument erected outside of the Arkansas state Capitol.
To make a statement about religious freedom the Temple revealed an eight-and-a-half-foot, half-man, half-goat Baphomet statue in front of the building.
"If you're going to have one religious monument up then it should be open to others, and if you don't agree with that then let's just not have any at all," Satanic Arkansas cofounder Ivy Forrester, said at the rally.
A trial was supposed to begin last year to settle the issue but it was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hail Satan!
- The brave doctor who performed an abortion in Texas is being sued by a disbarred lawyer serving jail time - Upworthy ›
- The brave doctor who performed an abortion in Texas is being sued by a disbarred lawyer serving jail time - Upworthy ›
- Pro-choice rallies held in over 600 cities across America ›
- Pro-choice rallies held in over 600 cities across America - Upworthy ›
- Students walk out of pro-life assembly at Catholic high school - Upworthy ›
- Citing the First Amendment, synagogue sues Florida over abortion law - Upworthy ›
- Appalachian mom gives speech about abortion ban in Kentucky - Upworthy ›
Men try to read the most disturbing comments women get online back to them.
If you wouldn't say it to their faces, don't type it.
This isn’t comfortable to talk about.
Trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault and violence.
A recent video by Just Not Sports took two prominent female sportswriters and had regular guys* read the awful abuse they receive online aloud.
Sportswriters Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro sat by as men read some of the most vile tweets they receive on a daily basis. See how long you can last watching it.
*(Note: The men reading them did not write these comments; they're just being helpful volunteers to prove a point.)
It starts out kind of jokey but eventually devolves into messages like this:
Awful.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
These types of messages come in response to one thing: The women were doing their jobs.
Those wishes that DiCaro would die by hockey stick and get raped? Those were the result of her simply reporting on the National Hockey League's most disturbing ordeal: the Patrick Kane rape case, in which one of the league's top players was accused of rape.
DiCaro wasn't writing opinion pieces. She was simply reporting things like what the police said, statements from lawyers, and just general everyday work reporters do. In response, she received a deluge of death threats. Her male colleagues didn't receive nearly the same amount of abuse.
It got to the point where she and her employer thought it best to stay home for a day or two for her own physical safety.
The men in the video seemed absolutely shocked that real live human beings would attack someone simply for doing their jobs.
Not saying it.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
Most found themselves speechless or, at very least, struggling to read the words being presented.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
Think this is all just anecdotal? There's evidence to the contrary.
The Guardian did a study to find out how bad this problem really is.
They did a study of over 70 million comments that have been posted on their site since 2006. They counted how many comments that violated their comment policy were blocked.
The stats were staggering.
From their comprehensive and disturbing article:
If you can’t say it to their face... don’t type it.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
So what can people do about this kind of harassment once they know it exists?
There are no easy answers. But the more people who know this behavior exists, the more people there will be to tell others it's not OK to talk to anyone like that.
Watch the whole video below:
.This article originally appeared on 04.27.16