Family · Madison, WI Metro · September 11, 2026
Planned Parenthood Sues Wisconsin Over 24-Hour Waiting Period, Provider Rule
What Alinsky tactic is being used
3 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 10
“The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.”
The pressure here is cumulative and timed rather than novel: Kaul v. Urmanski (2025 WI 32, decided 4-3 on July 2, 2025) struck the 1849 statute on implied-repeal grounds while deliberately sidestepping whether the Wisconsin Constitution protects abortion — and this new suit, filed Sept. 10, 2026 in Dane County, was lodged days after the state Supreme Court opened its term with a 5-2 liberal majority and a month after Justice Chris Taylor, a former Planned Parenthood legislative director, was seated. Each ruling is used as the platform for the next filing; §§ 253.10 and 940.15(5) are the next two items on a list, not the last.
Counter-Rule 10 · The Long Game
Plan in decades against a campaign built on attrition. Succession and endurance beat any single victory.
Plan in the same time units. This month, read the actual Kaul opinion (wicourts.gov, 2025 WI 32) and the two challenged statutes so you know the ground before the next filing; put the Wisconsin Supreme Court's April election dates and your own state's judicial elections on a calendar your congregation or group actually keeps. Recruit one younger person to take over the tracking, and write down who reads the docket when you cannot.
Rule 3
“Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
The contest has been moved off ground where ordinary citizens function — legislative hearings, elections, persuasion — and onto state constitutional litigation over Article I liberty claims and two specific criminal and licensing statutes, with the state Medical Examining Board and Board of Nursing as co-defendants. The complaint's framing that the laws are "medically unjustified" also shifts the argument onto clinical-evidence terrain rather than moral or statutory terrain.
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.
Get competent on the unfamiliar ground before you are asked about it: read Wis. Stat. § 253.10 and § 940.15(5) in full (they are short and free at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov), and learn which body — court, medical board, nursing board — actually decides what. When asked a clinical or procedural question you cannot answer, say "I don't know, I'll find out," and then find out. Refuse to improvise numbers or case names in public.
Rule 12
“The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.”
The suit's strongest public claim is that a 24-hour wait serves no purpose and forces two trips. That claim is weakest where something real is offered inside those 24 hours and strongest where nothing is — which is precisely why the fourth action item on this page is about pregnancy resource centers. If the waiting period is defended as protective, the protection has to exist in fact.
Counter-Rule 12 · Universal Construction
The book agrees with this one rather than inverting it: if you would tear something down, you are obliged to build the thing that replaces it.
Do the building rather than only the arguing: ask your nearest pregnancy center for its most recent service report and its actual appointment availability, then fund or staff the specific gap it names — ultrasound hours, diapers, housing referrals, post-birth follow-up. Write down what your church commits to and for how long. Decline to describe services no one in your area can actually deliver.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
Know where you stand
The free 4-minute assessment identifies your mountain and your institution’s capture phase — so alerts like this one arrive matched to where you actually stand.
Facing this yourself? Ask. Describe what is happening and get what the book, Scripture, and the law of your state say, with the exact words to use. Your first one is free.