By Arielle Del Turco

Tucked between the fashion news and terrible life advice found in Cosmopolitan magazine, the November/December 2023 issue also features a lengthy article promoting abortion as a Satanic ritual. The piece centers around The Satanic Temple (TST), an elaborate stunt of an organization which describes itself as a non-theistic religious movement and is involved in litigation aimed at removing Christian symbols from the public square and opposing state-level pro-life laws. The group’s virtual abortion center received glowing treatment from one of America’s best-known magazines.

Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic (yes, it’s really called that) ships dangerous abortion pills by mail after only a Zoom call with expecting mothers in New Mexico. The article states that the TST-run enterprise “prescribes abortion pills (at $91 per set, a competitive price) up until the eleventh week of pregnancy and offers 24/7 phone access to licensed medical personnel to anyone in need. It’s just that they’re also Satanists…”

Always looking to apply a religious veneer on their progressive activism and thereby justify its disingenuous claims to religious freedom protections, TST’s remote abortion center encourages women to perform a ceremonial “Satanic abortion ritual.” So, what do these Satanists want vulnerable women going through the pain and trauma of aborting their own children alone to do exactly?

First, women are told to find a quiet space, hopefully one with a mirror. Then, “[j]ust before taking the medication, gaze at your reflection and focus on your personhood. Home in on your intent, your responsibility to you.” The abortion ritual encourages women to concentrate on themselves and reflect on whatever fearful or selfish justification they might have for ending the life of someone else. The personhood of an unborn child is completely disregarded. Also disregarded is our responsibility to others, especially those we are in a relationship with or are biologically related to.

After taking a few breaths, women are told to read this “tenet” out loud: “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.” When autonomy is the primary principle to live by, it fosters a defensive, insecure, and selfish way of life. Christians will recognize this tenet as rejection of God’s sovereignty in our lives. The simple fact is that almost nothing in our lives is subject to our will alone — our plans and desires bump up against the actions of other people and are subject to chance. Even our own bodies are subject to diseases or medical conditions we do not consent to. Yet, we can lead more grateful and less insecure lives by submitting to the will of a God who loves us. Accepting a new baby that may be unplanned can be seen as a beautiful part of life, like so many other twists and turns in our journeys that work out for the best.

According to Cosmopolitan, immediately after taking the first abortion pill, women will “immediately afterward, recite, Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs.” This is an especially odd thing to tell oneself. It speaks to the need for abortive mothers to justify abortion to themselves — and not even on the basis of scientific fact, but on “one’s best scientific understanding of the world.” How sad.

The most heinous part of the ritual occurs after the pain and cramping and bleeding, when an innocent and dependent child has been forced out of the safety of his mother’s womb to an early death. Cosmopolitan writes:

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.

The words of Jesus are distorted, twisted from Jesus’ description of His sacrifice for us (Luke 22:19-20; Luke 22:42; John 19:30) to indicate not that we, too, ought to sacrifice ourselves and will the good of the other, but that someone else — an innocent child — must die for our own benefit. This is the opposite of Christ’s attitude and is the opposite of love.

Nothing in this empty and self-centered ritual will comfort the wounded heart of a woman who is doing the unthinkable and killing her own child. Platitudes about autonomy and “scientific understanding” fall flat. Post-abortive women need the forgiveness of a divine Savior, as we all do (Romans 3:23).

The members of TST might think they are being ironic and edgy by calling themselves “Satanists.” The sad reality is that they’re just being truthful. They worship Satan with their actions, and they adopt the devil’s values when they destroy innocent lives on the altar of autonomy. The founders of TST were inspired, in part, to create a faux religion that was “repugnant” to Christians. On that, they have succeeded. However, both in this life and the next, I fear the joke will ultimately be on them.

While TST admittedly makes for an interesting subject for analysis, the group is relatively small and insignificant, as is its virtual abortion center. That Cosmopolitan decided to feature it in a special report might say more about the magazine than it does about a rise in Satanism. Cosmopolitan has long been at the forefront of promoting vice and immorality to its female audience, but this is a new low.

Arielle Del Turco is Director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, and co-author of “Heroic Faith: Hope Amid Global Persecution.”