Pro-choice group claims arson attack on Wisconsin anti-abortion office | Wisconsin

Federal brokers 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 office in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Household Action in Madison was attacked in the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown by a window, starting a small fireplace, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. Nobody was harm.

In a statement reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which said it was unable to confirm the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge said it launched the assault because of the organization’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that related establishments across the US disband or face “increasingly extreme tactics”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, however we're all over the US, and we'll situation no further warnings,” the assertion said, citing the violence of anti-choice teams 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 might 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) informed the Guardian that its brokers were conscious of the group’s claims of accountability, however cited the continued investigation for being unable to offer extra particulars.

The Madison police department said it was “aware of a bunch claiming duty for the arson at Wisconsin Household Action 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 data and tips associated to this case significantly and are working to vet each one.”

At a press convention on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF agents introduced 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, stated no suspects had so far been identified. Authorities were expected to offer an extra replace 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 selling marriage, family, life and liberty.

“We help the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception through pure loss of life. This contains opposing laws that promotes the destruction of human life – which starts at conception – by way of abortion and other means,” it says.

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

“We have to see a a lot stronger message of condemnation of this exercise from our Governor [and] from local regulation 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 accept that type of violence here.”

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

Arson, bombings, murders and acid assaults had been among greater than 300 acts of utmost violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the crucial 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 number of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly due to the fixed menace of violence towards personnel. Six states, MS stated, had just one abortion provider, principally small, impartial operators who were thought-about most at risk.

“Abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming fee,” the article said. “Unbiased suppliers are essentially the most weak to anti-abortion assaults and violence directed at their staff.”