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The Satanic Temple files lawsuit over Indiana’s near-total abortion ban

A wooden judge gavel and soundboard isolated on white background. (Provided Photo/Oana Malaeru/500px/Getty Images)

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Salem, Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple has sued Indiana’s governor and attorney general over the state’s near-total ban on abortions.

The religious association with 1.5 million members worldwide filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis.

One of the lawsuit’s allegations is that the ban violates the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act because it makes the exercise of the Satanic abortion ritual a crime.

Information filed with court documents says the ritual serves as a protective rite designed to “cast off notions of guilt, shame, and mental discomfort that a patient may be experiencing due to choosing to have a medically safe and legal abortion.”

The lawsuit also lists four other counts against the near-total abortion ban:

  • Taking the property of an involuntarily pregnant woman without just compensation violates the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
  • The ban puts involuntarily pregnant women into a condition of involuntary servitude in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment.
  • The ban discriminates between women who become pregnant by accident and women who are pregnant by rape or incest, violating the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
  • The ban discriminates between woman who become pregnant by protected sex and women who become pregnant by in vitro fertilization, violating the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The lawsuit asks the court to stop the enforcement of Indiana’s near-total ban on abortion for involuntarily pregnant women who are also members of The Satanic Temple.

The governor and attorney general have 21 days upon receipt of the lawsuit’s summons to respond.

The lawsuit came as the state attorney general’s office asked the state Court of Appeals to block a special judge’s order and allow Indiana’s new near-total ban on abortion to be enforced. The filing, dated Thursday, asked for the court to issue a stay on a preliminary injunction issued last week by Special Judge Kelsey Hanlon.

Indiana was the first state to pass one after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

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