The ritual involves staring into a mirror and chanting ‘By my body, my blood; by my will it is done’
Members of a Christian activist group hold a demonstration outside of a Boston hotel where the Satanic Temple is holding SatanCon, which they claim as the largest satanic gathering in history on April 28, 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts © Getty Images / Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Cosmopolitan has informed its readers about what it is like to perform an abortion in a ritualized ‘Satanic’ ceremony through the services of an online clinic named after the mother of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
In a post to its 4.2 million Instagram followers last month, Cosmopolitan presented a series of slides on how to perform the medical procedure as instructed by teachings of The Satanic Temple (TST) – a group that bills itself on its website as “the primary religious Satanic organization in the world.”
It also specifically referenced a “ceremonial” service conducted by the ‘Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic’. US Supreme Court Justice Alito wrote the ruling in the Dobbs v Jackson case that last year overturned Roe v Wade, ending nearly five decades of legal precedent governing abortion in the United States.
In its social media post from November 16, Cosmopolitan referenced a 37-year-old woman, Jessica, who had performed the procedure. “While she’s not a Satanist, Jessica decides to incorporate a few ceremonial elements into her solo abortion experience,” the magazine wrote.
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The post also detailed advice on how to observe The Satanic Temple’s teachings throughout the abortion ‘ceremony.’ This included staring into a mirror while taking an abortion pill and saying, “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.”
The ritual ends with the subject saying: “By my body, my blood; by my will it is done.” Cosmopolitan also suggested in its post to invite loved ones to witness the ceremony and to “light candles or even dress up – whatever makes them feel empowered.”
The Satanic Temple is officially recognized as a religion by the US government, and as such it contends that its patients are participating in a religious ritual. “That’s a key legal distinction,” Cosmopolitan noted. “TST hopes to leverage its historic push to expand its clinic model … into states where abortion is otherwise banned.”
Separately, The Satanic Temple has also said that it will provide support to its members who may wish to undergo gender reassignment therapy but face “infringements on their bodily autonomy by government entities at a local, state, or federal level.”
It adds that “ordained Ministers of Satan” would be available to testify on behalf of members who wish to transition, and that doing so falls under its ‘Third Tenet’ which states that one’s own bodily autonomy is a core and fundamental religious right.
