It hasn’t been law for a week and Texas’ new abortion law that bans the procedure as soon as six weeks into a pregnancy has drawn backlash as well as challenges.

What You Need To Know

  • The Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple is calling on the FDA to permit its Texas members to be allowed access two two abortion pills

  • Comes after a Texas law took effect that bans the procedure after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is often as soon as six weeks into pregnancy

  • The Temple, a tax-exempt, non-theistic religious organization, argues access should be granted via the Religious Freedom Restoration Act 

The latest challenge comes from what might seem an unlikely challenger: the Salem, Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple.

Attempting to skirt the law the Satanic Temple has written a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration calling on it to allow its Texas members to have access to abortion pills.

The Satanic Temple, which is tax-exempt and classifies itself as a non-theistic religious organization, argues its members should be able to access the abortion pills Mifepristone and Misoprostol via the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“Religions have special privileges under the First Amendment and RFRA. The Satanic Temple is utilizing these privileges to protect our religious belief in bodily autonomy - we’re taking our fight to the next level.

“As the courts affirm the rights of religious organizations to practice their faith, TST is demanding our religious rights to abortion access without unnecessary state interference,” the Satanic Temple’s website states.

“I am sure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton...will be proud to see that Texas’s robust Religious Liberty laws, which he so vociferously champions, will prevent future Abortion Rituals from being interrupted by superfluous government restrictions,” Temple co-founder and spokesperson Lucien Greaves tweeted.

The Texas law, pegged a “fetal heartbeat bill,” bans abortions at the point of the “first detectable heartbeat,” which could happen around six weeks into pregnancy, although that timeframe isn’t specified in the measure. Medical experts say the heart doesn’t begin to form until the fetus it is at least nine weeks old, and they decry efforts to promote abortion bans by relying on medical inaccuracies.

Related Stories

Also last week, the Texas House approved legislation that would prohibit the use of abortion medication in a critical period of pregnancy. The legislation, which passed 83-42 with one member abstaining, originated in the Senate and was passed quietly out of a House committee without testimony.

In Texas, the current deadline for medication-based abortion, which ends a pregnancy through the use of pills, is the 10th week of pregnancy.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.