Satanic Temple Quietly Drops Lawsuit Over Pro-Abortion Billboards — For Now

Abortion,
The Satanic Temple briefly parked a statue of baphomet — a satanic figure — in front of the Arkansas State Capitol Building as part of a demonstration in August of 2018.

Last February the Satanic Temple quietly dropped its lawsuit against Lamar Advertising over a set of pro-abortion billboards that the company rejected in Arkansas.

In September the Satanic Temple sued Lamar Advertising after the company rejected designs for pro-abortion billboards that the Satanic Temple wanted to place near pregnancy resource centers in Arkansas and Indiana.

All of the proposed billboard designs claimed that the Satanic Temple’s “religious abortion ritual averts many state restrictions” on abortion. 

One billboard even claimed pregnancy complications are the sixth most common cause of death among women between the ages of 20 and 34, and concluded that “abortions save lives.”

Understandably, Lamar rejected the Satanic Temple’s billboard designs for being “misleading and offensive.”

After a few months of wrangling in court, the attorney for the Satanic Temple filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit without prejudice. The Circuit Judge of Benton County granted the Satanic Temple’s request to dismiss the lawsuit on February 26.

Dismissing the case without prejudice leaves the door open for the Satanic Temple to refile the lawsuit later. However, so far it seems like the group hasn’t been interested in pursuing a lawsuit against Lamar Advertising any further.

The order to dismiss the lawsuit received very little attention last February. Lamar and the Satanic Temple apparently did not say anything publicly about the decision at the time, and most of us were more focused on the Arkansas Legislature.

But it looks like pro-abortion billboards won’t go up around pro-life pregnancy resource centers any time soon. That’s a good thing.

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U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Satanic Temple’s Pro-Abortion Appeal in Missouri

Abortion, , , ,
The Satanic Temple briefly parked a statue of baphomet — a satanic figure — in front of the Arkansas State Capitol Building as part of a demonstration in August of 2018.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently rejected a lawsuit from The Satanic Temple attacking pro-life laws in Missouri.

Live Action reports,

The announcement was released by the Supreme Court late last month, refusing to grant certiorari, meaning there weren’t enough justices on the Supreme Court who felt the case merited a review of previous court rulings. The Satanic Temple first filed a lawsuit attempting to overturn Missouri’s 72-hour waiting period law in 2018, which was dismissed by the Eighth Circuit Court. Another lawsuit was filed in 2019 on similar grounds, on behalf of an anonymous woman, “Judy Doe,” claiming the laws violated TST’s religious freedom. Doe and TST claimed Missouri’s laws were “forcing Plaintiff to act and forgo acting in a manner that violates her belief in The Satanic Tenets as a condition for getting an abortion in Missouri.”

The Satanic Temple has begun calling abortion a “religious rite” in recent years, seemingly in an attempt to skirt pro-life laws like the one in Missouri. The Temple’s abortion “ritual” consists of making affirmations in front of a mirror before and after the procedure.

In September The Satanic Temple sued Lamar Advertising after the media company rejected pro-abortion billboards that the group wanted to place near pregnancy resource centers in Arkansas and Indiana.

The billboards claimed The Satanic Temple’s “religious abortion ritual averts many state restrictions” on abortion.

So far The Satanic Temple has not been successful at convincing federal courts that abortion is a religious ritual. That bodes well for the lawsuit against Lamar over the billboards in Arkansas.

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