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<\/a><\/p>\nby THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.
\nBreitbart.com<\/p>\n
Missouri has reportedly doubled its abortion capacity this year \u201cthanks to the Satanic Temple and Planned Parenthood,\u201d who have worked in tandem to fight the state\u2019s restrictions on abortion.<\/h2>\n
With some of the most clearly defined regulations on abortion in the nation, Missouri had managed to\u00a0lower<\/a>\u00a0the number of abortion facilities to a single clinic, but a second Missouri clinic opened its doors recently and two others plan on following soon.<\/p>\n Planned Parenthood has battled against state regulations requiring abortion clinics to meet the same surgical center standards as full hospitals and for their doctors to have hospital privileges, and in April a federal court sided with the abortion giant.<\/p>\n U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs granted a preliminary\u00a0injunction<\/a>\u00a0invalidating requirements for the state\u2019s abortion clinics to meet standards for surgical centers and for their doctors to have hospital privileges, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down similar restrictions in Texas, which deemed those laws unnecessary and unconstitutional.<\/p>\n \u201cMissouri has not complied with that decision,\u201d Sachs, of the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City, wrote.<\/p>\n Shortly afterward, Planned Parenthood expressed its intention to expand its abortion services in the state. On Monday, Planned Parenthood Great Plains\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0plans to offer abortion services at two more clinics in Missouri, including its midtown Kansas City clinic, which now offers medication abortion services.<\/p>\n The Satanic Temple has often lent its muscle to pro-abortion\u00a0efforts<\/a>\u00a0alongside Planned Parenthood, and in this case has pressured Missouri legislators and worked through the courts to bring about a relaxing of abortion restrictions, according to\u00a0reports<\/a>. One of the Temple\u2019s fundamental tenets is that \u201cOne\u2019s body is inviolable, subject to one\u2019s own will alone.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday, the Satanic Temple argued in a Missouri court that the state\u2019s abortion restrictions violate members\u2019 rights to free religious practice. The organization challenged two Missouri laws: one that requires patients to look at anti-abortion literature and another that obliges them to wait 72 hours between their initial consultations and second appointments for their abortions.<\/p>\n Satanic Temple members have argued that their religion prizes rational, independent thought and that forcing Satanists to read anti-abortion pamphlets and \u201cconsider a religious proposition with which they do not agree\u201d during the 72-hour waiting period constitutes a violation of their beliefs.<\/p>\n For years the Satanic Temple has been involved with lawsuits in Missouri fighting abortion regulations. The group also attempted to procure a religious waiver for a female Satanist who sought to circumvent the 72-hour requirement under pretense that it violated her religion. A judge eventually threw out the case because the woman was no longer pregnant.<\/p>\n The Satanic Temple has been on the forefront of the fight to protect and extend abortion rights throughout the nation, and in 2015 set up a\u00a0crowdfunding<\/a>\u00a0website with Indiegogo \u201cto challenge arbitrary, insulting abortion regulations,\u201d especially the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.<\/p>\n Its website states:<\/p>\n The Satanic Temple (TST) supports personal choice in the context of abortion and, as part of a multi-faceted Women\u2019s Rights campaign, TST is offering religious exemptions from arbitrary, insulting, and outright harmful anti-abortion legislation that has been steadily encroaching across the nation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As an interesting aside, Satanism has a millennial history of association with child sacrifice, which makes the Temple\u2019s\u00a0financial and moral support of abortion a natural activity\u00a0for the sect. The Israelites struggled against the worship of\u00a0Baal<\/a>, another name for the Phoenician god Moloch, who demanded child sacrifices of his followers and was associated with the devil. The prophet\u00a0Jeremiah<\/a>\u00a0spoke explicitly of the sacrifice of children to Baal, warning his readers that God finds such behavior abhorrent.<\/p>\n Baal was often identified with Satan, especially in the form of \u201cBeezebul<\/a>\u201d (Lord Baal), the prince of demons, which literally meant the \u201cLord of the Flies.\u201d Jesus Christ was accused of obtaining powers for his miracles from \u201cBeelzebul,\u201d whom he identified as Satan.<\/p>\n