Satanic Temple files federal lawsuit challenging Indiana's near-total abortion ban

A new lawsuit with an unexpected plaintiff alleging Indiana's near-total abortion ban violates several provisions of the U.S. Constitution was filed this week at the federal court in Indianapolis.

The Satanic Temple, a Salem, Massachusetts-based religious association that defends personal sovereignty against the dictates of religious authority, claims Senate Enrolled Act 1 infringes on the constitutional rights of its female members in Indiana who are involuntarily pregnant due to the failure of birth control measures.

According to the lawsuit, temple members believe that during the period between conception and viability — or about 24 weeks of pregnancy — a fetus is part of the pregnant woman's body and not imbued with any humanity or existence separate from her.

As such, a pregnant woman is entitled to terminate her pregnancy through abortion in accordance with the temple's Tenet III: "One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone;" and the Satanic Abortion Ritual, which includes the recitation of the tenet and other affirmations, the lawsuit says.

However, the lawsuit claims Indiana's new abortion restrictions unlawfully deny temple members access to abortion and the Satanic Abortion Ritual by criminalizing the procedure, except in time-limited cases of serious health or life risks to the pregnant woman, lethal fetal anomaly or pregnancies caused by rape or incest.

Specifically, the lawsuit says Indiana compelling nearly all women to carry their pregnancies to term infringes on the property right each woman has to her uterus, and the state cannot deny her the ability to exclude or remove a fetus from her uterus without just compensation as required by the Fifth Amendment.

Likewise, the lawsuit notes a pregnant woman unquestionably provides her fetus hormones, oxygen, nutrients, antibodies, body heat and physical protection, all of which have substantial commercial value in Indiana based on the compensation provided to women who act as surrogates.

But the near-total abortion ban provides no compensation or consideration to a pregnant woman for providing the services necessary to sustain the life of a fetus, and is therefore unconstitutional under the 13th Amendment because it puts women into a condition of involuntary servitude, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also alleges that by allowing abortion in cases of rape or incest, as well as pregnancies commenced through in vitro fertilization, the new Indiana abortion law discriminates against women for no compelling reason in violation of the 14th Amendment by forcing those women unable to legally obtain an abortion to pay the physical and financial costs of carrying a pregnancy to term.

Finally, the lawsuit says a near-total ban on abortion effectively prohibits the exercise of the Satanic Abortion Ritual in violation of Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which mandates government interference in religious exercise be the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling state interest.

The temple is seeking a court order permanently barring Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican originally from Munster, from enforcing the statute.

The attorney general's office, which is tasked with defending Indiana's abortion statute, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on The Satanic Temple lawsuit.

On Thursday, Republican Owen County Judge Kelsey Hanlon put the new abortion law on hold, one week after it took effect, when she determined it likely violates Hoosier liberties protected by the Indiana Constitution.

"Regardless of whether the right is framed as a privacy right, a right to bodily autonomy, a right of self-determination, a bundle of liberty rights, or by some other appellation, there is a reasonable likelihood that decisions about family planning, including decisions about whether to carry a pregnancy to term — are included in (the Constitution's) Article I, Section 1's protections," Hanlon said.

Rokita has since asked the Indiana Supreme Court to consider immediately reviewing Hanlon's decision.

A separate state court lawsuit claiming the near-total abortion ban runs afoul of Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act is scheduled for review next month in Marion County.

Indiana's Republican-controlled General Assembly was first in the country to legislatively impose new abortion restrictions following the U.S. Supreme Court's June 24 Dobbs v. Jackson decision repealing the right to abortion established in 1973 by Roe v. Wade.

As enacted, Senate Enrolled Act 1 prohibited all abortions in the state from the moment of conception, except within 10 weeks of fertilization for pregnancies caused by rape or incest, or 20 weeks if necessary to prevent serious physical impairment or the death of a pregnant woman, or because of a lethal fetal anomaly.

It also attempted to shut down all abortion clinics in the state by requiring every abortion be completed in a hospital or hospital-owned surgical center, and put doctors at risk of losing their medical license if they failed to sufficiently justify the legal basis for an abortion.