The Satanic Temple announced Tuesday that it would open a new online abortion clinic. The center, based in New Mexico, will provide a "free religious medication abortion."
In our commitment to protecting bodily autonomy and assuring abortion access, we proudly introduce TST Health and our 1st Religious Telehealth Abortion Clinic, providing medical abortion medication via mail for use in the Religious Abortion Ritual! Visit https://t.co/a4U0wodhyB pic.twitter.com/Ls8reKZVo1
— The Satanic Temple (@satanic_temple_) February 1, 2023
This center will be under the umbrella of TST Health, a medical service of the non-theistic religious organization. Fox News reported it will provide telehealth screenings as well as appointments to get abortion pills. As their website states, these services will be free of charge and will be part of the Satanic Temple's "abortion ritual." However, patients who come to them must bring medications from a pharmacy, which generally cost about $90.
The Satanic Temple assures that the New Mexico facility will be staffed by licensed medical personnel and will be available to state residents who are at least 17 years of age, no more than 11 weeks along, and medically eligible for an abortion.
"Abortion ritual"
The Satanic Temple assured that the aim of the clinic is to protect bodily autonomy. In fact, the so-called "abortion ritual" is described as a "protective rite" that, according to its website, allows patients to "cast off unwanted feelings":
The ritual serves to assist in affirming their decision and to ward off the effects of unjust persecution, which can cause one to stray from the paths of scientific reasoning and free will that TST Members strive to embody. The ritual consists solely of spoken words. TST’s abortion ritual is exclusively verbal.
Abortion clinic to be named after Samuel Alito's mother
The facility will be called The Samuel Alito's Mom's Abortion Clinic, mocking Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito who wrote the draft that overturned Roe v. Wade and repealed the abortion law. Erin Helian, executive director of campaigns and director of religious reproductive rights at TST, told the Daily Caller News Foundation:
Prior to 1973, doctors who performed abortions could lose their licenses and go to jail. In 1950, Samuel Alito’s mother did not have options. The clinic’s name serves to remind people just how important it is to have the right to control one’s body and the potential ramifications of losing that right.
