For nearly half a century, the legal defense of reproductive rights has relied on the fragile scaffolding of the Fourteenth Amendment’s right to privacy. When Roe v. Wade was overturned, it left a vacuum that many reproductive rights organizations have struggled to fill.
However, a bold protagonist has stepped into the breach, pivoting from privacy to the First Amendment. The Satanic Temple (TST), frequently caricatured in mainstream media as a troupe of high-concept provocateurs, has become an impressively adaptable healthcare entity, among other projects.
Currently operating three telehealth clinics in Virginia, Maine, and New Mexico – with a fourth set to open this year – TST is utilizing the legal frameworks designed by the religious right to reclaim bodily autonomy as a sacred, protected right.
The RFRA Strategy: Subverting “Sincerely Held Beliefs”
The cornerstone of TST’s method is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a statute traditionally wielded by conservative Christian groups to secure exemptions from government mandates. TST is engaging in a deliberate subversion of this standard through carefully crafted legal battles.
“If RFRA exists in a state, it should exist to protect all religions,” explains Erin Helian, the director of TST’s Religious Reproductive Rights campaign.
The transition from activism to clinical operation was born out of legal necessity. When TST initially challenged abortion restrictions, state attorneys argued that the group lacked “standing” – claiming they had no medical infrastructure or clinical experience.
The response from TST leadership was a very succinct “watch us.” By establishing their functioning clinical model, TST effectively neutralized the argument that they were merely inexperienced sycophants. They are now a regulated healthcare provider, forcing the courts to grapple with the reality that if RFRA works for one faith, it must, by constitutional necessity, work for all.
“We’re essentially trying to exercise RFRA to its umpteenth and make sure that if it works for one, it works for all. It shouldn’t just be one [religion] that’s selected and highlighted and favorited.”
Bodily Autonomy as a Sacred Ritual
To trigger RFRA protections, an act must be rooted in a “dearly held belief.” To address this, TST has codified abortion care into their religious tenets as the “Satanic Abortion Ritual.”
By framing their argument as adherence to scientific reason and bodily autonomy as a form of religious liturgy, TST asserts that state-mandated waiting periods or “informed consent” lectures are state-sponsored interferences with their religious beliefs.
In this post-Dobbs landscape we’ve been thrust into, TST is challenging the state to either honor the “Free Exercise” of Satanists or admit that religious liberty in America is a tiered system reserved for Christian hegemony.
The Power of the Provocative
The naming of TST’s facilities is a dual strategy of public confrontation and internal community building. Their flagship New Mexico clinic, “Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic,” serves as a dark yet humorous, jurisprudential jab at the man responsible for the Dobbs decision.
“If Sam Alito’s mom had a choice, maybe we wouldn’t be in [this] state in America today,” Erin notes, acknowledging the provocative nature of the statement.
However, other clinic names, such as “Right to Your Life,” were chosen through a democratic member vote. This grassroots participation highlights TST’s evolution over the years into a “family” made up of donors and members. The names are designed to be thought-provoking, using satire to illuminate the grim reality of forced pregnancy while fostering a sense of agency among their members.
A New Framing: Wins and Strategic Losses
TST’s litigation record in states like Indiana, Idaho, and Texas is often viewed through the narrow lens of wins and losses. However, the organization views itself as a “legal scout” for the broader movement. Fighting high-stakes challenges and exhausting appeals with relentless determination, TST helps to map the legal minefield, identifying judicial barriers that other reproductive rights groups can later navigate and eventually dismantle.
This is a remarkably selfless strategy in an era where selfishness seems abundant. TST acknowledges they may “lose more often than they win,” but they view these courtroom defeats as a way to carve out space for the entire movement. By absorbing the initial legal blows and testing the limits of RFRA in hostile jurisdictions, they provide a blueprint of evidentiary hurdles that future litigants can learn from.
The War Room Response to Governmental Abuse
The volatility of the current legal landscape requires an almost military-grade operational agility in order to keep up with the rapid changes. Following the legal attack on telehealth access to Mifepristone (Mife) this past weekend, TST’s clinical staff entered what they call “war room” mode.
“Just last night, we saw an attack…first thing this morning, I had a meeting with my clinic staff to speak about how we’re going to pivot,” Erin recounts. The solution was an immediate transition to a “Misoprostol-only” (Miso) protocol to ensure that patients – many of whom are in the midst of a time-sensitive crisis – did not lose access.
Also central to their mission is the rejection of any profit necessity. TST focuses heavily on patients living below the poverty level, offering their services for free. In New Mexico, patients pay only a $91 fee, and this money goes directly to the pharmacy, not to TST.
They even help individuals in restrictive states use PO boxes or temporary addresses in “safe” states, acting as a logistical lifeline against these states’ oppression of access to care.
Beyond the Headlines: A Culture of Radical Kindness
There is a fairly strong cognitive dissonance between TST’s “shock and awe” public persona and its internal ethos. While the public may only see them as a group that trolls politicians, employees describe the organization as the “kindest place I’ve ever worked.”
This internal culture is defined by a level of empathy that Erin, drawing on her prior experience in the cutthroat worlds of politics and nonprofit leadership, finds unprecedented.
“I’ve never worked with a kinder, more considerate group of people, and that’s what drives me to stay no matter how hard [the work] gets.”
Their bedrock of kindness is the engine that drives TST’s high-stakes external provocations; the radical, unapologetic empathy they show one another is what allows them to withstand the vitriol of being advocates and provocateurs on the national stage.
A Future Defined by Choice
As The Satanic Temple prepares to open its fourth clinic, it appears that the “fringe” label is no longer an accurate descriptor of its systemic impact. TST is now a fierce legal advocate – a force to be reckoned with in the fight for reproductive access.
They are exposing the paradox at the heart of American (and global) religious liberty by demanding the same religious respect afforded to “traditional” faiths be afforded to them.
If the law is designed to protect the “sincerely held beliefs” of the few, can it justly deny those same protections to the sincerely held beliefs of others, simply because those beliefs prioritize science over dogma? Of course not.
The future of reproductive rights will be an uphill battle that sees this question come up repeatedly, but we can find solace in the fact that the fight is being fought by so many determined advocates.
Listen to the full interview with Erin Helian on our YouTube channel, or read the written transcript.
