CV NEWS FEED // Cosmopolitan Magazine has come under fire for promoting “satanic ritual abortions” in a social media campaign and article earlier this month.
In a feature piece titled “The Satanic Abortion Clinic That’s Pissed Off Pretty Much Everyone … and Might Beat the Bans Anyway,” Cosmo described The Satanic Temple’s (TST) new “telehealth abortion clinic” in New Mexico as having “a real chance of breaking the religious right’s grip on abortion law.”
Referring to the Satanic group’s “telehealth clinic” as “a legitimate medical entity,” Cosmo praised TST for “continuing to lead a national crusade against so-called crisis pregnancy centers,” noting that “Satan symbolizes activism too.”
In a social media campaign the magazine rolled out following the article’s publication titled, Cosmo instructs pregnant women to engage in a ritualization of self-autonomy.
The campaign was titled “So How Does a Satanic Abortion Ceremony Even Work?” and offered an overtly occultic answer:
First, find a quiet space. Bring a mirror if you can. Just before taking the [abortion] medication, gaze at your reflection and focus on your personhood. Home in on your intent, your responsibility to you.
Later, once the procedure is complete, 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 post received extensive backlash across social media platforms for glorifying abortion and Satanism.
One woman on X (formerly known as Twitter) wrote: “This mocks the sanctity of motherhood and Christianity. It’s disgusting that a mainstream magazine that claims to empower young women would serve this sick content.”
Another woman pointed out: “When Christians retreat from the public square, something else will inevitably take its place.”
According to a TST press release, anyone living in the state of New Mexico “seeking to perform TST’s abortion ritual” can receive free online “screenings” and obtain prescriptions for abortion pills at a reduced price.
TST announced their plan to open “The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic” in early February. The name of the clinic mocks Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the opinion damning Roe v. Wade, and suggests his mother might have wished to abort him if the procedure was legal at the time.
TST co-founder Malcolm Jarry told Fox News following the announcement:
In 1950, Samuel Alito’s mother did not have options, and look what happened. Prior to 1973, doctors who performed abortions could lose their licenses and go to jail. The clinic’s name serves to remind people just how important it is to have the right to control one’s body and the potential ramifications of losing that right.
Similarly, Cosmo’s article fantasizes about what life would be like if Alito’s mother had aborted him:
It’s unlikely that Rose ever considered abortion for herself (a few years before she passed away, she told reporters she opposed it). But what if her circumstances had been different—if her own life had been endangered by the pregnancy or if the fetus had a fatal anomaly or if Rose simply hadn’t been ready for a child?
“Nearly 75 years later,” the article continued, “one group decided to channel this policy fantasy into a new health care enterprise named in her honor.”
In presenting itself as a religious-affiliated organization and its “ritual abortions” as “an essential part of a religious practice” protected under the First Amendment, TST said it “hopes to expand operations into other states, including those that do not allow clinicians to perform abortions.”
