Pro-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 attack on an anti-abortion office in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Family Action in Madison was attacked in 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. Nobody was hurt.

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

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, however we're everywhere in the US, and we will issue no further warnings,” the assertion mentioned, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate docs with impunity” as justification.

The Madison assault came days after the leaking of a supreme court draft ruling that will overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade resolution and finish 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 agents had been conscious of the group’s claims of responsibility, but cited the ongoing investigation for being unable to present more particulars.

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

It urged anybody with relevant info to make contact, saying: “We take all info and ideas related to this case seriously and are working to vet each 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 office in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, said no suspects had thus far been recognized. Authorities were anticipated to offer an extra replace on Tuesday afternoon.

In a values assertion 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 assist the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception by means of natural demise. This consists of opposing laws that promotes the destruction of human life – which starts at conception – by abortion and different 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 need to see a a lot stronger message of condemnation of this exercise from our Governor [and] from local legislation enforcement,” he wrote.

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

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

An assault on an anti-abortion workplace is a relative rarity compared with assaults 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 extreme violence recorded by the Rand Company between 1973 and 2003, and in probably the most heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion supplier, was shot useless in a church in Wichita.

In March, MS magazine reported that the variety of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly because of the fixed threat of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS said, had only one abortion provider, largely small, impartial operators who have been thought of most in danger.

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