I don’t know if it’s the law of unintended (but totally predictable) consequences, or just a theoretical vindication of what some conservative Christians have believed all along, but a group called the Satanic Temple (not to be confused with the Church of Satan or the Church of Azazel [the guy from the Exorcist]) is claiming that the US Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case exempts its followers from informed consent abortion laws.  Currently 35 states have some form of law which requires women seeking an abortion to listen to some sort of combination of “Are you sure?” “Do you know this made-up scientific fact?” and “Are you sufficiently ashamed?”  The Temple has prepared a letter that women can try to use, whether they are members of the Temple or not, in order to avoid being subjected to the informed consent spiel.  The Satanic Temple’s press release can be found here.

The Satanic Temple says that it believes in the inviolable rights of people to control their bodies and that “decisions regarding my health should be based on the best scientific understanding of the word, even if the science does not comport with the religious or political beliefs of others.”  Silly Satanists!

Although until now the Satanic Temple’s most media-friendly project was seeking to place a 7-foot goat-headed statue of Satan in the Oklahoma State Capitol next to the Ten Commandments monument which was erected there in 2012 (read about that here), their other lesser-known crazy campaigns include “Protect Children Day” (May 15) which opposes the use of religiously-sanctioned physical and mental punishment in disciplining minors.

When Temple spokesperson and life-of-the-party Lucien Greaves (nee  Doug Mesner) was asked if his organization was Satanic or satiric, he replied with a Colbert-esque, “I say why can’t it be both?”  Touche.  That’s apparently been the philosophy of organizations like Focusing on the Family and the Alliance Defending Freedom for decades…