Cosmopolitan magazine, which calls itself the “biggest young women’s media brand in the world,” recently published an article promoting “Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic.”

The clinic, which is based in New Mexico, provides telehealth abortion services to women within the state “courtesy of The Satanic Temple,” “the primary religious Satanic organization in the world.” The Satanic Temple is currently running a fundraiser (“Supreme Courtship”) to help the clinic provide services for free, with patients only paying to receive the “medication” that will be mailed to them following a “telehealth video appointment.”

‘Religious’ Abortions

The temple is marketing its abortion services as one of its “religious services” and abortion as nothing more than “religious reproductive healthcare.”

Abortions are given to women who are up to 11 weeks pregnant and are only available to those seeking to perform the temple’s “religious abortion ritual.”

For women located outside of the state, the clinic says it will “guide” women through the process of receiving “financial or logistical support to travel to perform your Abortion Ritual.”

Eventually, according to Cosmopolitan, the temple “hopes to leverage in its historic push to expand its clinic model beyond New Mexico.” In states where abortion is banned, the temple aims to open clinics by arguing that to deny abortion services would be religious discrimination. They argue that abortion should receive “religious protection.”

Satanic Abortion Ritual

One of the Seven Fundamental Tenets of the Satanic Temple is that “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone,” which is spoken aloud during the abortion ritual. Providing abortion services is just one of the “many steps” the temple says it has taken to uphold its tenets and make “legal abortion more accessible.”

Cosmopolitan writer Arielle Domb argues that the clinic is a “sincere mission” of the temple.

“This marrying of lightning-rod concepts is…a lot,” writes Domb. “Intentionally so, as The Satanic Temple (TST) attempts to take pervasive moral panic and flip it on its head, utilizing Satanists’ reputation for defiance to expand access to urgent health care.”

The abortion ritual includes affirming certain tenets of the Temple.

“First, you find a quiet space. Bring a mirror if you can,” Domb explains. “Just before taking the medication, gaze at your reflection and focus on your personhood. Home in on your intent, your responsibility to you.”

The ritual concludes with reading of certain tenets of the temple out loud: 

Later, once your body expels the aborted tissue, return to your reflection. Focus again on your personhood, your power in making this decision. Complete the ritual by reciting a personal affirmation: By my body, my blood; by my will, it is done.