The Satanic Temple is once again suing the state of Missouri over its 72-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions, as well as the law requiring those women to receive a factually inaccurate booklet designed to change their minds. Both, the Satanists claim, are medically unnecessary, and both violate the anonymous plaintiff’s Satanic beliefs which declare that “one’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.”

A similar case was filed in 2015, but a judge later tossed it out a year later because — you’ll never believe this — she was no longer pregnant.

That ruling was appealed and the Satanists argued in front of the State Supreme Court in January. They’re still awaiting a decision.

In the meantime, the new suit, according to Satanic Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves, shows “their claim is neither an isolated event nor one the state can indefinitely evade review of.”

“With a new suit already filed while the state Supreme Court deliberates on our previous complaint, I believe we’ve effectively given the lie to the Attorney General’s Office insinuations throughout the hearings thus far that this issue was an isolated affair insofar as The Satanic Temple membership’s religious liberty is concerned. With a bald theocratic imposition of abortion restrictions into Missouri state law, and a continued expansion of religious privilege and exemption, Missouri lawmakers are going to be forced to accept that there are religious perspectives, just as deeply-held, that may directly contradict their own religious beliefs and directives.”

In essence, by filing a new lawsuit on behalf of a new plaintiff, “Judy Doe,” the Satanists are saying the courts can’t dismiss this problem on a technicality. They’re going to keep coming with these lawsuits until the court hears them out, because the problem isn’t going away.

This suit specifically claims the state is violating Judy Doe’s First Amendment right to “exercise [her] Freedom to Believe Abortion is Not Immoral and act upon their belief without interference or influence by the State of Missouri.” They also say it’s a free exercise violation because the state is “forcing Plaintiff to act and forgo acting in a manner that violates her belief in The Satanic Tenets as a condition for getting an abortion in Missouri.”

If you’d like to donate on behalf of Judy, you can do so right here. The default amount is $6.66.

(Image via Shutterstock)

