Satanic Temple stands up to Ohio's heartbeat bill

Say what you will about Satan, but the Satanic Temple has slowly morphed into one of America's most progressive religions.

Earlier this week, the group's leader, Lucien Graves, released a statement announcing that the Satanic Temple was religiously exempt from Ohio's proposed Heartbeat Bill. The bill, which was passed by the state's legislature but has yet to be signed by Governor John Kasich, would ban all abortions after six weeks.

Pro-choice advocates are concerned that the Heartbeat Bill is both unconstitutional and would put many women seeking abortions at great risk.

“We do not advocate for a belief in the soul, therefore we feel that complex cerebral functions necessary for perception are what makes a person a person," Lucien Greaves, a spokesperson for the Temple said. "The non-viable fetus (a fetus that cannot survive outside the woman’s body) is, we feel, a part of the woman’s own body, and it is her choice whether or not she continues the pregnancy."

To be fair, "we do not advocate for a belief in the soul" would probably not stand up on its own in the Supreme Court, and Governor Jon Kasich may not be sympathetic to the claims of Satanists. Still, for many concerned pro-choice advocates, it's a powerful voice of dissent.

The Temple is confident that their religious exemption would hold up in court:

"Our tenets assert bodily autonomy and uphold Science as the arbiter of claims over what is true, to which we give deference in our decisions. As the Ohio Bill is imposed for no medical purpose and presents no compelling state interest, it is simply a violation of our free exercise, we will fight back against it, and we will very likely prevail."

Last week, The Satanic Temple declared exemption from Texas' new rule requiring that all fetuses be buried or cremated after abortions on the grounds that they believe, "burial rites are a well-established component of religious practice."

In the past, the group has used the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision, which allowed organizations to refuse emergency contraceptives for religious reasons, to defend their own initiatives.

Satan has never looked so good.