(LifeSiteNews) — The Satanic Temple again lost in court in the latest failed attempt to stop Indiana’s pro-life law, which generally provides protections for preborn babies.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the group does not have standing to challenge Indiana’s law. It failed to prove any of its members are actually harmed by the state’s protections for preborn babies.

The three-judge panel upheld a lower court ruling that reached the same conclusion.

Senate Bill 1, passed in 2022 but which went into effect in 2023, bans abortion throughout pregnancy with some exceptions and “requires an abortion in Indiana be performed by an Indiana-licensed physician in a hospital or an out-patient surgical center owned by a hospital,” according to the opinion’s summary. Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote the decision.

It also prohibits so-called “telehealth abortions,” where a doctor virtually approves dangerous abortion drugs.

The Satanic Temple operates a telehealth abortion facility in New Mexico and wants to start one in Indiana.

The group argued that abortion prohibitions violated the group’s rights under the state Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Judge Easterbrook and the two other judges on the panel upheld a lower district court ruling which concluded:

…that the Satanic Temple did not have associational standing on behalf of its members because it failed to identify an injury specific to an identified member and rather sought to establish associational standing utilizing “speculation through statistics.” The court concluded that without identifying an injured member, the Satanic Temple did not have associational standing.

Judge Easterbrook criticized the satanists for their legal theory, based merely on probability, that some of its members might get pregnant in the future.

The argument “relies on statistical probability to show it has some unnamed members who might be injured.”

Attorneys for the plaintiffs did so by citing the “declaration of Dr. J.D. … who claims it is reasonably likely that 94 of the Satanic Temple’s 11,300 members located within the state of Indiana could become involuntarily pregnant during the course of a year.”

This OB/GYN said “it is reasonably likely that there is at least one involuntarily pregnant woman in Indiana at any given time,” the court wrote.

However, “these members may or may not exist given the nature of probabilities,” the judges wrote.

The judges continued to rule against the Satanic Temple on this claim of standing. They also knocked down arguments that the group is harmed by the abortion regulatory scheme because it did not initially argue it had an Indiana doctor licensed to kill babies.

The Satanic Temple only identified a doctor that could legally kill babies in Indiana during the Seventh Circuit arguments. Courts, the Seventh Circuit panel wrote, “will not consider evidence and factual arguments that [litigants] did not present to the district court,” citing another case.

Indiana leaders ‘grateful’ for ruling

Indiana’s Republican leaders expressed their gratitude for the victory.

“We’re proud to have secured another win that keeps Indiana’s pro-life law firmly in place,” Solicitor General James Barta said in a news release. “This unanimous ruling is a major step forward for protecting unborn life, and we’re grateful to stand with Hoosier families in defending these essential safeguards.”

“This lawsuit was ridiculous from the start, but this unanimous court decision is a critical victory because it continues to uphold our pro-life law that is constitutionally and legally rock-solid,” Attorney General Todd Rokita also said. “Our state has proudly built a strong culture of life, and no satanic cult – or any extremist group – is going to stop us.”

A state lawsuit against the law remains pending, with a decision expected later this year, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. An activist judge placed an injunction on the law’s enforcement against religions that allegedly allow for abortions as part of their “faith.” This includes a group of Jewish women who say the law violates their faith’s purported dictates on killing innocent preborn babies in the womb.

As LifeSiteNews previously reported, the suit alleges that banning abortion conflicts with the plaintiffs’ interpretation of Jewish teaching that “a fetus attains the status of a living person only at birth” and the “necessity of protecting the life and physical and mental health of the mother prior to birth as the fetus is not yet deemed to be a person,” among pro-abortion interpretations of other religions

Senate Bill 1, passed soon after the reversal of Roe v. Wade, generally protects innocent preborn babies from being killed in the womb.

The law prohibits all abortions except those sought due to rape or incest during the first 10 weeks or “substantial and irreversible physical impairment” of the mother’s health. It allows for the killing of preborn babies if the preborn child “suffers from an irremediable medical condition that is incompatible with sustained life outside the womb” up to 20 weeks.

While the law includes exceptions, pro-lifers stress that a baby’s inherent human dignity and right to life do not come from the circumstances of his or her conception. Direct abortion is never medically necessary, as medical experts have also confirmed.

Reported abortions are much lower, with a 98 percent drop compared to years past. However, questions remain about the effect of the easy availability of abortion drugs on this law.

Recent abortion stats from the state have also revealed a high rate of complications. On several occasions, the state has reported a baby surviving an abortion.