Over at Slate, Amanda Marcotte thinks it’s absolutely hilarious that Satanists are challenging abortion restrictions on religious liberty grounds, seeking to expand abortion access. She argues this somehow makes conservative use of religious liberty laws “a little more complicated.” Responding to a Satanic Temple demand that an abortion clinic grant a religious exemption from the state-mandated waiting period, she writes:
While the Satanists did misfire by taking aim at the clinic, as a public act of trolling, this stunt gets an A-plus. It exposes the double standards of those who claim to stand for “religious freedom,” and it highlights how waiting periods and other restrictions are actually an attempt to impose religious dogma about abortion on those who don’t agree with it. Being denied medical care is actual religious oppression. Letting someone access her own medical care is not.
First, there is nothing “complicated” about the Satanists’ claim, and there is no double standard. Religious liberty case law is littered with examples of fringe religions seeking religious exemptions from various state laws and regulations. Sometimes they win. Often they lose. I suspect this effort — if it ever gets to court – would stumble on the state’s acknowledged interest in protecting what the Supreme Court has called the “potential life” of even non-viable unborn children. Yet even if the Satanists win, there would be something . . . incredibly appropriate about the pro-abortion Left wrapping its arms around Satan in the quest to preserve abortion on demand.
Embrace the Satanists all you want, Ms. Marcotte. I’m not sure it’s sending the message you want to send.