Professional-choice group claims arson assault on Wisconsin anti-abortion office | Wisconsin

Federal agents and detectives from the Madison police division are investigating a claim by a pro-choice group that it was behind a weekend arson assault on an anti-abortion office in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Household Motion in Madison was attacked within the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown through a window, beginning a small hearth, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. Nobody was harm.

In an announcement reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which mentioned it was unable to verify the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge mentioned it launched the assault due to the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that similar establishments throughout the US disband or face “more and more excessive techniques”.

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, but we're all over the US, and we'll difficulty no further warnings,” the statement stated, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate docs with impunity” as justification.

The Madison attack got here days after the leaking of a supreme court draft ruling that may overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade decision and end almost half a century of constitutional abortion protections.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) advised the Guardian that its brokers were conscious of the group’s claims of responsibility, but cited the continuing investigation for being unable to present more particulars.

The Madison police division said it was “aware of a gaggle claiming accountability for the arson at Wisconsin Family Motion and are working with our federal companions to determine the veracity of that declare”.

It urged anybody with relevant data to make contact, saying: “We take all info and ideas associated to this case critically and are working to vet each and every one.”

At a press convention on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF brokers announced a joint investigation into what it referred to as an “abortion extremism case involving an arson and graffiti attack of a pro-life advocacy workplace in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, said no suspects had to date been recognized. Authorities had been expected to offer a further update on Tuesday afternoon.

In a values statement on its web site, Wisconsin Household Action (WFA) describes itself as a Judeo-Christian group devoted to “strengthening, preserving, and promoting marriage, family, life and liberty.

“We help the sanctity of human life from the second of conception by means of pure death. This consists of opposing laws that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – by means of abortion and other means,” it says.

Jack Hoogendyk, the WFA board chairman, attacked the response to the attack in a tweet posted on Tuesday morning, singling out Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, and Madison PD detectives.

“We need to see a a lot stronger message of condemnation of this activity from our Governor [and] from native legislation enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press convention on Monday, Evers referred to as the attack “a horrible incident”.

Calling for a full investigation and arrests, he added: “Because the state of Wisconsin, we don’t settle for that sort of violence here.”

An attack on an anti-abortion office is a relative rarity in contrast with attacks on abortion clinics and suppliers. In 2019, the Guardian reported on an “alarming escalation” in picketing, vandalism and trespassing by anti-abortion activists at medical facilities.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid attacks were amongst greater than 300 acts of utmost violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the most heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion supplier, was shot lifeless in a church in Wichita.

In March, MS journal reported that the variety of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly because of the fixed menace of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS stated, had just one abortion supplier, mostly small, unbiased operators who were considered most at risk.

“Abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming price,” the article said. “Independent providers are essentially the most vulnerable to anti-abortion assaults and violence directed at their workers.”