Religion · Indianapolis, IN Metro · September 14, 2026
Indiana Supreme Court Weighs Jewish Religious Claim to Abortion Access
What Alinsky tactic is being used
3 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 4
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
The challenge is built on the state's own Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the 2015 law enacted by the same conservative coalition that wrote the abortion ban — the plaintiffs are not arguing conservatives are wrong about religious liberty, they are demanding Indiana apply its own rule to them. Falk sharpened it further by pointing at the ban's existing rape-and-incest exceptions: if the legislature already carved out exceptions, it has conceded the ban is not absolute. That is Rule 4 in its purest form — the pressure comes from a gap between a stated principle and its selective application.
Counter-Rule 4 · Radical Integrity
Close the gap between stated values and actual practice before anyone else finds it. This tactic only works where the gap is real.
Read Indiana's RFRA text and the exception clause at Ind. Code 16-34-2-1(a) yourself before discussing either, so you are describing the law rather than repeating a talking point. Decide honestly whether you would defend a RFRA claim brought by a Muslim, Amish or Orthodox Jewish plaintiff on a matter you disagree with — and say so out loud, because a religious-liberty principle applied only to one's own side is the gap this tactic feeds on. Where you think the state's answer is that RFRA does not reach the taking of a third party's life, learn to state that distinction precisely instead of retreating to 'abortion is wrong.'
Rule 8
“Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions.”
Indiana's ban survived a state constitutional challenge before this same court in 2023; the same law is now under attack on an entirely different legal theory, filed in 2022 and still live four years later, with a parallel Kentucky case that partially succeeded this May. The theory changes, the target does not. Standing, class certification, RFRA, state constitution — each is a fresh front designed to keep a settled law permanently unsettled.
Counter-Rule 8 · Institutional Resilience
Decide in advance, in writing, what the institution will and will not concede — so exhaustion cannot make the decision for it.
Assume this will not end with one opinion: when the ruling comes, read what it actually decides and what it expressly leaves open, because the next filing will live in that opening. Ask your church or pro-life group to put in writing now — before a ruling lands — what it will and will not concede, so that a bad news cycle does not make that decision for it. Set a calendar reminder to check the docket quarterly rather than reacting only when a headline appears.
Rule 3
“Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
The argument has been moved onto ground where pro-life laypeople have almost no footing: rabbinic teaching on ensoulment and first breath, plus the strict-scrutiny machinery of a state exemption statute. The counter came from inside that expertise — the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty's brief and Josh Blackman's observation that Jewish teaching on abortion is not uniform — which is exactly why it lands and an improvised outsider objection would not.
Counter-Rule 3 · Preparation and Width
Prepare the unfamiliar ground before you are dragged onto it. "I don't know, I'll find out and come back" beats an improvised answer.
Do not argue about halakha you have not studied; when asked, say 'I don't know, I'll find out' and then find out. This month, listen to the September 10 oral argument recording on the Indiana courts site and read the JCRL amicus brief when you obtain it from the clerk, so you can describe the Jewish positions on both sides accurately and by name. Refuse to characterize any Jewish community as monolithic in either direction — that overreach is the thing most likely to discredit you.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
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