The Satanic Temple and reproductive rights (2013–)

The Satanic Temple was founded in 2013 by Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry (pseudonyms of the co-founders, whose legal identities have been partially disclosed in subsequent litigation). Its Seven Fundamental Tenets, published on its founding, include: "One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone" (Tenet III). The organisation reports approximately seven hundred thousand members as of 2024.

TST has, from its founding, treated reproductive rights as a religious observance. Its Satanic Abortion Ritual, announced in August 2020, is presented as a rite performed by a member seeking an abortion. As published by TST, the ritual consists of the member reciting the Seven Fundamental Tenets — with particular emphasis on Tenet III, on bodily inviolability — and a Personal Affirmation performed before and after the abortion. TST has argued in federal court that its members have a religious-liberty right to perform the ritual and that state abortion restrictions imposed since Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022) burden that right.

Two cases are live at the time of writing. The Satanic Temple v. Rokita, filed in the Southern District of Indiana in 2023, argues that Indiana's abortion restrictions violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as applied to members practising the Satanic Abortion Ritual. The Satanic Temple v. Labrador, filed in the District of Idaho in 2023, argues the same under Idaho's restrictions. Both cases remain in litigation as of this tract's publication date.

TST's public communications on the ritual and the litigation are direct: the organisation characterises abortion as a religious observance under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and its filings in Rokita and Labrador argue that state abortion restrictions burden the religious practice of members who perform the Satanic Abortion Ritual.

TST is the clearest current live case of a Satanic organisation openly aligning itself with a specific feminist position — reproductive rights — and pursuing that alignment as its principal legal-and-public-relations strategy. The court filings are public record. The religious framing of the position is TST's own, in its own words, in current federal litigation.