May 6, 2022
The Satanic Temple cannot help you get an abortion, and it does not deserve your support
[Printable zine]
When members of The Satanic Temple see criticism of them and their failed efforts in the name of abortion rights, they often say, “Well, at least they’re doing something.”
Yes, what they’re doing is actively making things worse and making money off of it.
“The Satanic Temple is not going to save you.”
In addition, smaller organizations, activists, and legal scholars have been even more direct.
Perhaps just as importantly, we are not aware of any actual abortion access organizations, providers, or clinic escorts that have good things to say about them; if they were so helpful and effective, you might think someone somewhere would.
More yet, former prominent TST members like former head of the Reproductive Rights Campaign Jex Blackmore and artist Artetak have spoken out about not spreading misinformation that TST can help people.
So have even leftist Satanic orgs that were never former members, although plenty of those as well after what happened in 2018.
To be clear: The Satanic Temple have lost all of their abortion-related lawsuits so far.
As of January 2022, the only partial exception was the Texas suit from before the Texas bounty bill went into effect. That suit has already had the Religious Freedom Restoration Act claim dismissed and been stayed till June 2022. Nevertheless, TST announced—and fundraised at least $200,000 off of!—the promise they’d sue Texas about something, but so far nothing has happened and TST likely has use for the money in their many other ongoing, struggling lawsuits.
[Edit: In February 2022, The Satanic Temple did file a challenge to SB8 in state court but with the same “Ann Doe” from the previous year who had already gotten her abortion by the time the “bounty bill” came into effect; therefore, it was not clear what standing they would actually be able to assert. In 2015, the federal “Mary Doe” case in Missouri was dismissed due to lack of standing because she was no longer pregnant by a few days, a decision upheld on appeal.]
To take a moment to understand why, it might be worth looking at the state-court Mary Doe case which lost at every level, including unanimously at the Missouri State Supreme Court, but the chief justice’s concurring opinion stated the issue very clearly at its most fundamental level:
If the mere coincidence of law and religious belief violates the Establishment Clause, then innumerable, generally accepted legal proscriptions against murder, theft, and other destructive behaviors are also unconstitutional. Of course, that is not the law…
Mo. Supreme Court Chief Justice Zel M. Fischer, concurring opinion
When PolitiFact says the Temple’s legal strategy “so far is unsuccessful,” they are being exceedingly generous. Lead Stories interviewed three of their own legal scholars, and without appearing familiar with TST’s court history, came to somewhat more definitive conclusions.
“Is it possible that a member of the Satanic Temple can successfully challenge laws against abortion based on a religious belief in bodily autonomy? Yes, it is possible. But I suspect that the state would have the better argument,” Samuel D. Brunson, the Georgia Reithal professor at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law, wrote. “As much as we want an easy, costless way to deal with potential anti-abortion laws in a post-Roe world, something that seems easy and slick and too cute by half is probably not going to work.”
The simple, and urgent, takeaway is that no one should rely on The Satanic Temple to get an abortion because their marketing does not match their reality.
In fact, based on past history like the Temple’s first abortion client Mary Doe, relying on TST is probably the worst thing a person could do.
When it comes to The Satanic Temple, there’s always more and it’s always worse, but again, don’t take our word for it.
Many women and nonbinary people who have spoken out about problems among TST’s leadership as a persistent issue, although from top people this has slowed down in recent years, likely due to TST threatening critics with legal action for supposedly violating Non-Disparage Agreements they forced top people to sign (and yes, continue to use):
- Why I’m Leaving The Satanic Temple by Emma Story
- “The Struggle for Justice is Ongoing” by Jex Blackmore
- Mary Doe Speaks, an interview by the former TST St. Louis Chapter with TST client Mary Doe, as well as the response to Temple co-owner Lucien Greaves publicly attacking her (part one) (part two)
- “Yet Another Quitting The Satanic Temple Post” by Autumn
- Why I Left The Satanic Temple by Aria deSatanas
- End of Times, Beginning of Times by Evelyn Breedlove
- Local chapter member banned, doxxed after reporting sexual assault of chapter head by Anonymous, for obvious reasons
- Top leadership more concerned with damage control than addressing damage, (part one) (part two) shared by Rumor Solanine
- Second thoughts about Philadelphia Lupercalia by u/tossatanicacc
- See also comment “I’m getting some heat from our admin for posting this”
- See also: The Satanic Temple’s “Sex-Positive Guidelines” document, namely “Participatory events are those in which attendees may participate in consensual sex-positive activity, 1. Might include orgies, BDSM, fetish balls”
- See also TST Ordination Council Member Dex Desjardins re: official TST orgies and the need for that document being that the orgies have “been happening for a while now”
- On Washington State leadership by Randi a.k.a. SnailWhisperer
- With additional context by another former member, Wylie
- Yet more by a third person, Luciana Lovecraft; a fourth, Lynne Cooney; a fifth, Aeryn Kylie Reed; a sixth, who tried to enroll her child in After School Satan (more on that); a seventh, Luci Furr; and an eighth person, famous for their “Lady Lucifer” character.
This is exhausting but non-exhaustive.
When people say, “At least The Satanic Temple is doing something about abortion”, this narrative requires you to not look at what TST is actually doing. This narrative requires you to not see whether, as Gandy, Dr. Brett, and others said, it’s making things worse.
This narrative requires you to not care if money is being well-spent or self-dealt.
This narative requires you to not care what those who actually are doing work on protecting abortion access think of an organization led by a guy who used to proudly proclaim the need for forced sterilization and mandatory abortions in the name of IQ-based eugenics.
To them, scrutiny and expectations of specificity are regarded as persecution and slander.
It sucks that it isn’t true—that there isn’t a magic bullet of hypocrisy or “facts and logic” we can use to protect our bodily autonomy. It really does.
But that’s the way it is, and defenders of The Satanic Temple who remain very emotionally invested in this idea and the “brand” of TST will likely literally call it defamation to point all of this out, but they will be unable to point to anything specifically, actually inaccurate with it beyond accusing their critics of being biased.
Hail Satan.
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