By Dave Andrusko
Satanic Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves
Beginning, Monday, December 19, abortion clinics in Texas will no longer be free to depose of the remains of aborted babies as if they were medical waste. The baby’s remains would have to be either buried or cremated by hospitals or abortionists. (The rules won’t apply to miscarriages or abortions that take place at home.)
“I believe it is imperative to establish higher standards that reflect our respect for the sanctity of life,” said Texas pro-life Gov. Greg Abbott back in July. “This is why Texas will require clinics and hospitals to bury or cremate human and fetal remains. I don’t believe human and fetal remains should be treated like medical waste and disposed of in landfills.”
The impeding deadline prompted The Satanic Temple to threaten legal action in a post put up on the group’s Facebook account over the weekend.
The Satanic Temple believes burial rites are a well-established component of religious practice. This is undisputed in the entirety of US legal history. In addition, members of The Satanic Temple believe in the inviolability of the body and, as such, these rules contradict our fundamental beliefs. The First Amendment protects our right to practice our beliefs, and under the Religious Freedom Reform Act (RFRA), the State must present a compelling reason for why they want to enforce rules that inhibit adherence to our religious practices.
Elsewhere they are less discrete. Satanic Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves is quoted:
“Texas health officials are baldly imposing the view that the tetal tissue is elevated to personhood—a religious opinion that conflicts with our own. If Texas is going to treat the disposal of fetal tissue differently from the disposal of any other biological material, in contradiction to our own religious beliefs, they need to present a compelling state interest for doing so. Of course, there is no such state interest, and it’s perfectly clear the demand for fetal tissue burial is a punitive measure imposed by sadistic theocrats.”
The group sites the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Greaves told Jezebel, “We’ll file an injunction as soon as the state tried to impose this on a member who claims exemption.”
Of course the regulations do not affirm or suggest “personhood,” nor is it “punitive” to require respectful treatment of babies who have been unjustly killed.
Currently, according to the Dallas Morning News, the rules allow “for such materials [the baby’s remains] to be incinerated or ground until they are rendered unrecognizable and disposed of in a sanitary landfill.”