New Mexico’s Abortion Hotline Refers Women to the Satanic Temple’s TST Health
According to a report from the New Mexico Alliance for Life, a state-run abortion hotline refers pregnant women to The Satanic Temple’s (TST) Health, “the world’s first religious abortion clinic.”
The taxpayer-funded hotline, instituted by the state’s Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham earlier this year, connects women with abortion clinics and facilitates transportation. According to the report, this information was obtained through a public records investigation, which revealed that TST Health is listed as a clinic available to callers seeking abortions.
TST Health is described as “a collaborative of reproductive rights advocates and abortion care providers contracted and directed by The Satanic Temple to advance its Reproductive Religious Rights Campaign.” The “religious” clinic seeks to “expand access to medical abortions and TST’s abortion ritual.”
The temple claims to “religiously objects to many of the restrictions that states have enacted that interfere with abortion access.” TST Health also describes the “Abortion Ritual” as a “protective rite” which “casts off unwanted feelings that a patient may be experiencing due to choosing to have a legal and medically safe abortion.” The “ritual” is designed to “alleviate stressors and empower the patient to be guided by The Satanic Temple’s Third and Fifth Tenets when pursuing their decision.”
“One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone” the temple’s website states.
According to ABC News, there were “more than 11,000 reported abortions statewide last year compared with nearly 4,900 abortions reported in 2021.”
“Additionally, New Mexico Alliance for Life found that only 13 of the 33 abortion clinics women are referred to are in-state businesses, while 20 are out-of-state: from Bethesda, MD, Seattle, WA, to Wichita, KS.
The in-state state taxpayer-funded abortion referral list includes Presbyterian Health of Espanola, 5 Las Cruces area abortion businesses, 6 Albuquerque, 1 Santa Fe and 1 Farmington (see the list obtained by NMAFL here.)”
New Mexico Alliance for Life
Earlier this year, New Mexico’s Governor signed a bill into law overriding local ordinances’ attempt to limit abortion access in their jurisdictions. The state is one of the most lenient in the country, allowing abortions to take place throughout all three trimesters of pregnancy, past the point of fetal viability, and when the baby can feel pain.
