SALT LAKE CITY – Last Wednesday, Utah State Representative Ken Ivory (R-district 39) introduced a bill in the Utah State House addressing sexual crimes. The bill was introduced via the House Judiciary Committee and amends the sexual abuse statute to include ritual abuse. The bill was backed by Utah County Sherriff Mike Smith who testified in its support.
Critics noted that it harkens to the Satanic Panic because it specifically codifies ritualistic child abuse.
House Bill 196, seeks to add “Ritual Abuse of A Child” to the sexual crimes statute. The bill defines “ritual” as “an event or act or a series of events or acts marked by specific actions, gestures, or words, designed to commemorate, celebrate, or solemnize a particular occasion or significance in a religious, cultural, social, institutional, or other context.”
The bill goes on to list the explicit actions that can fall under the newly proposed definition including animal sacrifice and torture, cannibalism, bestiality, and forcing a child to ingest urine or feces, Other notable actions are “enter a coffin or open grave containing a human corpse or remains.” and “ participate in a mock, unauthorized, or unlawful marriage ceremony as an individual being married to another individual or a fictional representation;”
The inclusion of a marital act is particularly notable because various religious practices use marriage to supernatural forces as a metaphor.
In an emotional hearing about the bill during its introduction, several adults identified themselves as survivors of ritualistic child sexual abuse. The survivors testified that they experienced horrifying elements of abuse that included devil worship and animal cruelty to coerced bondage, rape, cannibalism, child prostitution, and mind control. The victims described these assaults as deeply physically and emotionally distressing, to the extent that they suppressed memories of the abuse.
One activist, Kimberli Raya Koen, who leads summits on ritual abuse says she experienced “everything named in the bill” while also never having seen her abusers brought to justice.
“Utah has an incredible opportunity to lead the country in naming and acknowledging this horrific abuse is real,” she said at the hearing. She writes on her website, “Physical, sexual, and satanic ritual abuse battered my psyche and heart. I was tortured into forgetting my identity as a child of God and into believing I was “satan’s bride”, “demon child”, a tool, meant for him to use and suffered greatly as a result. There were literally hundreds of people who would rape and torture me as the years went on.”
Rep. Ivory described ritualistic sexual abuse as common in Utah. In a press release from 2022, the Utah County Sherriff’s Office asked for the public’s assistance to help their Special Victims Unit Detectives in collaboration with other agencies with investigations. They wrote, “We are pleading with the public and encourage victims, or individuals with knowledge of these crimes, to contact the Utah County Sheriff’s Office Special Victim’s Unit, so that they can be offered all the assistance possible. We understand that there are individuals who have concerns for their safety and/or well-being, who have been silenced. We need your help.”
That information led to the arrest of David Hamblin, a former therapist, and his ex-wife Roselle Anderson Stevenson, both for sexual abuse of children in the 1980s. The prosecution has been fraught with accusations of mismanagement and witness tampering. Neither Hamblin nor Stevenson have entered pleas. NBC News reports that Hamblin’s attorney said in a statement that he “strongly denies the allegations”; Stevenson’s attorney said she “is adamantly denying the charges.”
At the hearing for the bill, Representative Nelson Abbott cited The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ practice of having teenagers reenact the journey of Mormon pioneers to Utah as an example. Reflecting on his own experience leading such a trek, he raised the question of whether it would qualify as “ritual child abuse” since they had the youths skip breakfast one day—considering that the law prohibits withholding food from a child as part of a religious ritual.
However, Ivory contested this viewpoint, emphasizing that the bill also necessitates the action to result in bodily or psychological harm.
“This isn’t a trek… or fasting for a meal,” he argued. “This is a form of ritual abuse.”
Other critics have noted the bill has many other issues. “This bill is a very good example of panic legislation, hastily cobbled together, on the basis of testimony from a couple of women recollecting childhood histories of satanic ritual abuse,” said Mary DeYoung to NBC News. DeYoung is a professor emeritus of sociology at Grand Valley State University who has documented the harms of the satanic panic. “It’s a bill that responds with the kind of approach where we get really angry and say, ‘There ought to be a law.’ And we don’t think about whether it can be enforced in such a way that adds any benefit to society or that ensures that justice is done.”
At the hearing, Representative Brian King pointed out that physical and sexual abuse are already against the law and expressed skepticism about the necessity of the proposed legislation. He emphasized the need for more quantifiable data demonstrating that ritual abuse is a prevalent issue before he could endorse the bill.
“I am not convinced about the ritual abuse aspect,” he stated. “I’m not ruling it out entirely, but I require more information before reaching a decision.” King was the only dissenting vote.
Representative Kera Birkeland motioned to advance the bill to the full House. She cried as she addressed the victims, expressing her support and shock at the realization that this type of abuse was occurring in Utah.
“We stand by you,” she assured them. “And we acknowledge your pain.”
For his part, Smith defended the bill and his investigation. “I was attacked, I was ridiculed, I’ve had memes made about me because of it,” he said. “Without a doubt, these things do happen in Utah,” Smith added. “I believe they’re happening, I believe they have happened.
If the bill passes Utah will become the first state to codify ritual abuse since the Satanic Panic, a period in the United States during the 1980s and early 1990s when there was widespread fear and moral panic about alleged Satanic ritual abuse involving children. This panic was fueled by a combination of religious fervor, sensationalized media coverage, and the promotion of unfounded conspiracy theories.
Investigations and subsequent court proceedings found virtually no evidence supporting the existence of widespread Satanic cults involved in ritual abuse. Many of the accusations were discredited, and some innocent people faced unjust legal consequences.
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