Updated: Satanic Temple Places Pro-Abortion Billboards in Arkansas
The Satanic Temple has placed pro-abortion billboards in Arkansas.
The billboards come as the group has dropped its lawsuit against Lamar Advertising Company over a set of pro-abortion billboards the company rejected in 2020.
In 2020 the Satanic Temple proposed four billboard designs that falsely claimed The Satanic Temple’s “religious abortion ritual averts many state restrictions” on abortion and that “abortions save lives.” The group reportedly wanted Lamar Advertising Company to place the billboards near pregnancy resource centers in Arkansas.
Lamar Advertising Company understandably rejected the billboard designs for being “misleading and offensive.” The Satanic Temple sued Lamar in federal court as a result.
On Tuesday attorneys for Lamar and the Satanic Temple filed court documents stating, “The parties have resolved all issues between them, and there remain no issues to be decided by this Court.”
On Tuesday Family Council also learned that the Satanic Temple had paid to place at least one billboard in Northwest Arkansas claiming that “Abortions Save Lives!”
The billboard advertises “Free Religious Abortion Care,” and it provides an address for a website that tells how to get abortion drugs in New Mexico.
Attorneys for Lamar Advertising Company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit and the new pro-abortion billboard.
It’s worth pointing out that the Satanic Temple is an atheist organization with a long history of stirring up controversy in Arkansas.
The group has opposed Arkansas’ monument honoring the Ten Commandments and is part of a lawsuit to have the monument removed from the capitol grounds.
In August of 2018 the Satanic Temple held a small protest in front of the State Capitol, and parked a flatbed trailer holding a 7½-foot statue of baphomet — a satanic figure — in front of the Capitol Building for a short time.
Abortion doesn’t “save lives” — it ends lives. It takes the life of an unborn baby, and it hurts women. The Satanic Temple simply has no business making these outrageous, pro-abortion claims on billboards in Arkansas.
Updated 1:00pm Thursday, August 10: Family Council has confirmed that the Satanic Temple has placed multiple pro-abortion billboards in Arkansas. This story has been updated to reflect that fact.
Ten Commandments Lawsuit Hearing Scheduled for Friday in Little Rock
A federal court in Little Rock has scheduled a hearing for this Friday in the lawsuit over Arkansas’ Ten Commandments monument.
In a court order, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker announced her court would hold a hearing on the pending cross motions for summary judgment in the case on Friday, July 7, at 10:00 a.m. in downtown Little Rock.
In 2015 the Arkansas Legislature passed a measure authorizing a privately-funded monument of the Ten Commandments on the State Capitol Building grounds.
The monument is identical to one ruled constitutional at the capitol building in Texas.
Shortly after Arkansas’ monument was unveiled, atheist groups and the Satanic Temple joined a lawsuit to have it removed from the capitol grounds.
The case originally was set to go to trial in July of 2020, but the trial was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawsuit has remained in limbo ever since, and Judge Baker has twice been asked to set a schedule for resolving it.
In January, Judge Baker issued a scheduling order indicating a trial date in the case would be set sometime after August 31 of this year.
As we have said many times, there shouldn’t be anything controversial about a monument honoring the significance of the Ten Commandments.
Historians have long recognized the Ten Commandments as one of the earliest examples of the rule of law in human history, and they have helped shape philosophy and laws in countries around the world.
Arkansas’ monument simply commemorates that legacy.