The Satanic Temple's Lawsuit Against Texas Abortion Restrictions Stayed Pending Supreme Court Ruling on Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization

SALEM, Mass., Jan. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 20th, 2021, the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued a ruling staying The Satanic Temple's lawsuit against the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. TST is suing the state for impeding on its members rights to perform their abortion ritual under both the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Texas law requires those seeking abortions to endure a gauntlet of procedures designed to manipulate patients away from obtaining medical care from their healthcare professionals.

"It's the very definition of government overreach," explained The Satanic Temple's Director of Campaign Operations Erin Helian. "Texas is interjecting government control directly into people's private medical decisions when those decisions have zero bearing on any coherent government interest."

The stay pauses the progress of TST's suit until the Supreme Court hands down a ruling on Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization. The ruling is likely to have a big impact on the legal right to abortion throughout the United States, with the Mississippi Solicitor General openly calling for the Court to overturn Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey during oral arguments.

The Satanic Temple's attorney Matthew Kezhaya responded to the stay stating, "After Dobbs comes down, we will reassess our legal strategy to continue fighting the good fight based on the new and anticipated developments in law."

This suit is another part of The Satanic Temple's ongoing efforts to secure abortion rights access in spite of anti-abortion legislation and court rulings across the United States. TST is also simultaneously engaged in a lawsuit against the state of Texas over its controversial new anti-abortion legislation, SB8, which allows private citizens to bring civil actions against any person who performs or aids in the performance of an abortion, creating a Supreme Court-abetted end-run around Constitutional abortion protections.

About The Satanic Temple
The Satanic Temple, subject of the critically-acclaimed documentary, Hail Satan?, and the academic analysis of modern Satanism, Speak of the Devil, confronts religious discrimination to secure the separation of church and state and defend the Constitutional rights of its members. In response to Oklahoma and Arkansas placing a Ten Commandments statue on Capitol grounds, TST offered its bronze Baphomet statue to stand alongside the Christian monuments. TST hosts the "After School Satan" club to counter the Evangelical "Good News Clubs" in public schools across the country to promote a plurality of religious viewpoints. 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 for the individual will. For more information about The Satanic Temple, visit https://thesatanictemple.com/.

Contact: Karen Campbell, [email protected]

SOURCE The Satanic Temple