Has a self-described ‘satanic’ religious organization sought to challenge restrictions on abortion?

The Satanic Temple, a Salem, Massachusetts-based nonprofit religious organization, says it recently filed suit in federal court in Texas to seek an exemption to the state’s restrictions on abortion. The group aruges that provisions for mandatory waiting periods and viewings of sonogram results violate its members’ religious beliefs, such as that bodily autonomy is “sacrosanct.”

In 2019, the organization made a similar, unsuccessful challenge to Missouri's abortion laws.

It also recently asked the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for unrestricted access to drugs that induce abortions, citing religious grounds similar to those claimed by Native Americans for the use of peyote in religious rituals.

The Satanic Temple describes itself as a “nontheistic” group, as it does not believe in a literal Satan, but in a metaphorical Satan as “a symbol of the Eternal Rebel in opposition to arbitrary authority.”