Missouri Satanist Challenges Pro-Life Laws as ‘Religious Tenets’

Pro-abortion activists have adopted a new legal strategy against pro-life laws in Missouri, challenging them as violations of religious liberty protections. In 2016, a self-avowed Satanist sued the state, claiming its abortion regulations are “religious tenets” and therefore a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Missouri’s Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA). The case now heads to the state’s Supreme Court for what could be a final decision.

A county court twice last year dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the plaintiff, identified as “Mary Doe,” did not have standing and failed to state an actionable claim. The woman was not pregnant when she filed the lawsuit, so the law did not apply to her and did not prevent her from having an abortion. But in a 3-0 decision, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District found some redeeming value in the plaintiff’s twisted view of the law and ruled Oct. 3 that the case “raises real and substantial constitutional claims” only the high court can address.

The original complaint, filed last year in Cole County Circuit Court, challenged the state’s informed consent law and is rife with religious language illuminating the plaintiff’s claim that the statute amounts to religious canon. The law’s declarations that life “begins at conception” and abortion…