Seventh Circuit sours on Satanic Temple’s challenge to Indiana abortion law

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (CN) — A three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit seemed unimpressed with the Satanic Temple’s challenge to Indiana abortion law during oral arguments held at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law on Thursday.

The Satanic Temple, an organization whose mission statement includes championing benevolence and empathy, asked the panel to reverse a lower court ruling that found the group lacked standing to challenge Indiana’s near-total abortion ban.

The law, which Indiana’s Supreme Court has upheld, criminalizes the medical procedure except when the mother’s health is at serious risk, when a lethal fetal anomaly is present, or in cases of rape or incest.

The Satanic Temple argues that the organization’s goal of providing telemedicine abortion care, including abortion drugs sometimes referred to as abortifacients, is unfairly blocked by Indiana’s law.

James Mac Naughton, the New Jersey-based attorney representing the group, said: “When the appellants filed this lawsuit, they had a very specific and concrete intention to provide abortifacients to its members nationwide. As I stand here before the court today, it has implemented that plan.”

U.S. Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook, a Ronald Reagan appointee, immediately interrupted to ask the question that would dominate most of the roughly 30-minute hearing about Indiana’s law.

“If a federal court were to hold that law unconstitutional, would that provide any relief at all to the Satanic Temple? Easterbrook said.

Mac Naughton replied: “It would be able to provide abortifacients to its members in Indiana.”

Easterbrook responded, “No, they would not. There are other statutes on the books in Indiana requiring these drugs to be approved personally by a physician after at least one in-person visit.”

The back-and-forth continued, with Mac Naughton saying the Satanic Temple is only asking the panel for relief from the threat of criminal prosecution. As to civil penalties or sanctions, the organization will “cross that bridge when we get to it," he said.

The judges tried to clarify how blocking the challenged law would provide any benefit, as other laws would still prevent abortion care via telemedicine.

“You are not saying anything relevant, that’s my problem,” Easterbrook said. “I’ll let you go on, but you have to understand that unless you can answer the question as I pose it, you have no hope.”

U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Kirsch, a Donald Trump appointee, asked Mac Naughton about the group’s original claims in its complaint that the Indiana abortion law violated members’ religious freedoms. Mac Naughton said the organization was no longer pressing that argument.

Indiana Deputy Solicitor General Jenna Lorence reiterated the state’s position that the organization lacks the right to challenge the law.

“Plaintiffs bear the burden of showing that they have standing at every stage of a case. The Satanic Temple has failed to do that here, despite opportunities to do so,” Lorence said.

She echoed the judges’ statements that even if the Satanic Temple was granted relief in the case, other laws would still prevent them from administering telemedicine abortion care to Indiana residents.

Joining the panel was U.S. Circuit Judge Doris Pryor, a Joe Biden appointee.

The judges did not indicate when they would issue a ruling.