Clinics that provide abortion services generally have names that include such words as “women’s health,” “family options,” or “reproductive choices.”
Add to the list, “The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic,” part of The Satanic Temple Health network.
Based out of Salem, Massachusetts, The Satanic Temple, or TST, is launching what it describes as a “reproductive health clinic” in New Mexico.
“In 1950, Samuel Alito’s mother did not have options and look what happened,” Malcolm Jarry, a co-founder of TST, said in a news release.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Alito wrote the 2022 majority opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed the right to abortion in the U.S. for nearly 50 years.
According to the news release, anyone in New Mexico seeking to receive free abortion services must first agree to conduct the Religious Abortion Ritual.
The online medical services include confidential telehealth screenings and virtual appointments, resulting in a prescription being sent “to the clinic’s pharmacy partner, who will mail the (abortion) medications in a discreet package,” the news release said.
The fees for the unnamed pharmacy are expected “to fall around $90.” TST Health, which is the temple’s “religious medical services arm,” said it will have licensed medical staff available for patient questions and has a 24-hour on-call patient hotline.
In addition, TST’s website says the organization will also help those “who need assistance to travel to New Mexico when possible.”
The Religious Abortion Ritual is intended to “de-stigmatize this medical procedure” through recitation of two of the organization’s tenets, the release said. Something of a self-help, self-empowerment affirmation, the tenets are: “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone,” and “beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world,” rather than distorting scientific facts to fit personal beliefs.
The announcement of TST’s abortion services was condemned Monday by the New Mexico Alliance for Life. It also comes just as Democratic lawmakers in Santa Fe are advancing legislation that would prohibit cities and public schools in New Mexico from interfering with access to abortion or gender-affirming health care.
Multiple calls and messages seeking comment from TST were not returned.
The IRS has officially recognized TST as a religious group with nonprofit tax-exempt status.
The temple has previously stated that, under the First Amendment, as well as federal and state religious freedom acts, its abortion ritual is an essential part of its religious practice, and is therefore protected against restrictions and bans.
“This should be a wake-up call for all New Mexicans, but especially Christians and all those who voted for pro-abortion Democrats who have made New Mexico a welcoming state for abortion — and now for ritual abortion,” said Elisa Martinez, founder and executive director of the New Mexico Alliance for Life.
“Again, it’s just another example of an out-of-state operation finding safe haven here in New Mexico’s extreme abortion-to-full-term climate,” she said.
Joan Lamunyon Sanford, executive director of the New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, said that “access to abortion is needed by people of all faiths, and people of all faiths support access to abortion care.” The decision to access abortion care “is one that people make in accordance with their own faith and values,” she said.
TST said it hopes to expand its services into other states, particularly those that do not allow clinicians to perform abortions.
The temple’s website includes a listing of congregations throughout the United States and worldwide. There is no listing for a New Mexico congregation.
As stated on their website, the mission of TST is “to encourage benevolence and empathy, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense, oppose injustice, and undertake noble pursuits for the individual will.”
The Satanic Temple, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations, which are tax-deductible, can be made in amounts up to $666 by going to their website at thesatanictemple.com/pages/donate.
