Marc Perkel Rantz

Church of Reality demands religious exception to South Dakota Abortion Ban Law

PRESS RELEASE:

TITLE: Church of Reality demands religious exception to South Dakota Abortion Ban Law
DATE: 03-03-2006
CONTACT: Marc Perkel - marc@perkel.com

Does the Religious Freedom Restoration Act protect the Church of Reality from South Dakota's abortion ban?

The Church of Reality has today issued an edict declaring that South Dakota's ban on abortions violates the rights of it's members to practice their religion and calls upon the state to provide an exception to the law for members of the Church of Reality to be able to get abortions, and to provide immunity from prosecution to health care professionals who would provide abortions to church members.

The Church of Reality has taken a strong pro choice position when it comes to abortion declaring that a woman has an absolute right to choose not to reproduce if they don't want to. "This abortion ban is in direct conflict with several of our Sacred Principles.", declares Marc Perkel, the First One of the Church of Reality. "Our religious freedom is at stake here."

On February 21st the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling upholding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act allowing a religion to use a prohibited drug Hoasca, a hallucinogen containing DMT, a Schedule 1 drug prohibited by federal law under the Controlled Substances Act. This ruling declared that religious freedom take president over law in cases what the law creates a "substantial burden" on a "sincerely held religious belief". Under the RFRA the government has to demonstrate a "compelling government interest" in order to overcome the substantial burden test. This ruling opened the door to allow the Church of Reality to challenge the State of South Dakota on the basis that this law is unconstitutional as applied to members of the Church of Reality and health care workers who would provide abortion services to church members.

"We are starting the process today by putting South Dakota on notice and asking for them to voluntarily cooperate with us to provide our membership with a religious exemption to this law. If they fail to comply, we will see them in court."

The edict can be found at:
http://www.churchofreality.org/wisdom/current_event_edicts/

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South Dakota Aborting Law Infringes on Religious Freedom of Realists

Edict Date: 03-03-2006

The decision of the State of South Dakota to ban all abortions puts a substantial burden on the sincerely held beliefs of the Church of Reality which believes that a woman has an absolute right to and early term abortion without any outside restrictions. The right of a woman to control her own reproduction is vital to the advancement of society which is necessary to advance the cause of exploring reality the way it reality is.

This law violates several of the Sacred Principles including but not limited to, the Principle of Freedom, Principle of Privacy, Principle of Positive Evolution, Principle of Inclusiveness, Principle of Compassion, Principle of Environmentalism, Personal Responsibility and the Principle of Wisdom. We can not grow as a society where the government can command our women to bear children against their will. We are a fiercely independent and individualistic religion that places great sanctity on the value of personal choice which includes one of the most personal of all decisions, the decision of bearing children.

We reject the patriarchal view of other religions that the male dominated ruling sex should be allowed to decide to compel women to bear children against their will. We believe that one's status in society is not enhanced or diminished by their sex. Women and men are equal in the church of Reality.

We in the Church of Reality recognize that overpopulation of the planet is a serious threat to the integrity of human civilization and that overpopulation is worsened when women are compelled to bear children against their will.

We reject the notion that pregnancy is God's way of punishing teenage girls for chastity violations.

We believe that a person has the right to control their own lives and make their own choices even if those choices are considered to be clearly wrong choices. One has the right to live the life they choose to live and to enjoy and suffer the consequences of their decisions. We hold these personal decisions to be private and not a matter that requires any justification or explanation to society.

We take the position that a person begins their existence and has the rights of a human being at live birth. We reject that personhood and personal rights begin at conception. We in fact recognize that the two cells that make up a person are alive before conception and that conception is one of many steps necessary to produce a person and has no more significance that any other necessary step.

In particular, the South Dakota law prohibits all abortions even in cases of rape or incest. Therefore if a father rapes his daughter and impregnates her, she is forced to bear his child under the law. We in the Church of Reality finds this to be repulsive. Not only is the rape victim who would seek and abortion criminalized, but the doctor who provided the abortion would be criminalized as well.

Pursuant to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and consistent with the Supreme Court decision upholding the right to religious freedom, I Marc Perkel, as the highest authority of Church of Reality law do hereby declare and decree by edict the following:

1. That the Church of Reality finds that the South Dakota Abortion Ban is repulsive, unethical, and immoral.

2. That it infringes upon our freedom of religion under the First Amendment and places a substantial burden on our sincerely held religious belief in the right of women to choose to have abortions.

3. That the law criminalizes abortion providers from providing abortions services cutting off our female member's ability to legally obtain an abortion.

4. That it is our position that the State of South Dakota has no compelling government interest in prohibiting abortions and therefore the rights of Realists to get Abortions in South Dakota take precedent over South Dakota law.

We therefore demand that the State of South Dakota make provisions in their law enforcement system to allow members of the Church of Reality to legally obtain abortions and to provide doctors and other health care professionals immunity from prosecution for providing abortion services to Realists.

Posted by marc at March 3, 2006 11:36 AM