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

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

The headquarters of Wisconsin Household Action in Madison was attacked within the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown by means of a window, starting a small fireplace, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No one was harm.

In a press release reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which mentioned it was unable to confirm the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge stated it launched the attack because of the organization’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that similar institutions throughout the US disband or face “increasingly extreme tactics”.

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, but we are all around the US, and we are going to difficulty no further warnings,” the assertion mentioned, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate medical doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison assault got here days after the leaking of a supreme courtroom draft ruling that may overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade determination and finish nearly half a century of constitutional abortion protections.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) instructed the Guardian that its agents had been conscious of the group’s claims of duty, but cited the ongoing investigation for being unable to provide more details.

The Madison police division stated it was “conscious of a gaggle claiming accountability for the arson at Wisconsin Household Action and are working with our federal partners to find out the veracity of that declare”.

It urged anybody with related information to make contact, saying: “We take all information and ideas associated to this case seriously and are working to vet every one.”

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

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, mentioned no suspects had to this point been identified. Authorities were expected to give an extra update on Tuesday afternoon.

In a values assertion on its web site, Wisconsin Family Motion (WFA) describes itself as a Judeo-Christian group devoted to “strengthening, preserving, and selling marriage, family, life and liberty.

“We help the sanctity of human life from the second of conception through natural dying. This includes opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – via abortion and different 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 local legislation enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press convention on Monday, Evers known as the assault “a horrible incident”.

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

An attack on an anti-abortion workplace is a relative rarity compared with assaults 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 have been amongst more than 300 acts of extreme 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 provider, 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 mentioned, had just one abortion provider, principally small, impartial operators who were thought of most at risk.

“Abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming charge,” the article stated. “Impartial suppliers are probably the most vulnerable to anti-abortion assaults and violence directed at their employees.”