According to Bill of Health, the first such facility opened in February of 2023 in New Mexico. It is described as a telehealth clinic that offers free screenings, virtual appointments, and medication abortion services through the mail.
In October, Virginia became home to the Satanic Temple's second telehealth clinic, mockingly named the "Samuel Alito's Mom's Satanic Abortion Clinic."
Jonathon Van Maren, a columnist, author, and the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform's communications director, says the facility is named after Supreme Court Justice Alito (pictured above), a Catholic, for his direct role in overturning Roe v. Wade.
Writing for the court majority in the 2022 Dobbs decision, Justice Samuel Alito said that the 1973 Roe ruling and subsequent high court decisions reaffirming it "must be overruled" because they were "egregiously wrong," the arguments "exceptionally weak," and so "damaging" that they amounted to "an abuse of judicial authority."
Van Maren explains that Lucien Greaves initially founded the Satanic Temple of America to portray abortion as a fundamental religious sacrament and to use religious liberty legislation to protect the practice in states with pro-life laws.
In the post-Roe era, however, the temple's strategy has "shifted to trying to just simply protect abortion access period." That is why these two telehealth abortion clinics were opened.
"Greaves … is a Satanist who says he doesn't believe in Satan, although I think Satan very much believes in him," the columnist notes.
He does not think Justice Alito has responded to the clinic being named after him, as commenting on individual controversies is "generally not something that Supreme Court justices do."
He does, however, believe Justice Alito understood that the backlash to overturning Roe would be "incredibly fierce."
