Pro-choice group claims arson assault on Wisconsin anti-abortion workplace | Wisconsin

Federal brokers 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 Household Action in Madison was attacked in the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown by means of a window, starting a small hearth, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No person was damage.

In an announcement reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which stated 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 related institutions across the US disband or face “increasingly excessive tactics”.

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

The Madison assault came days after the leaking of a supreme court docket draft ruling that will overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade determination and finish virtually 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 have been aware of the group’s claims of duty, however cited the continuing investigation for being unable to offer more particulars.

The Madison police department stated it was “conscious of a group claiming duty for the arson at Wisconsin Family Motion and are working with our federal companions to find out the veracity of that claim”.

It urged anyone with relevant data to make contact, saying: “We take all info and ideas related to this case seriously and are working to vet every one.”

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF agents announced a joint investigation into what it called an “abortion extremism case involving an arson and graffiti assault of a pro-life advocacy office in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, said no suspects had so far been recognized. Authorities have been expected to provide a further update on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We help the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception via pure dying. This includes opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – by way 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 have to see a much stronger message of condemnation of this activity from our Governor [and] from local law enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press conference on Monday, Evers called 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 kind of violence right here.”

An assault on an anti-abortion office is a relative rarity compared 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 were among greater than 300 acts of maximum violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion supplier, was shot dead in a church in Wichita.

In March, MS magazine reported that the variety of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly due to the constant risk of violence against personnel. Six states, MS stated, had just one abortion provider, largely small, unbiased operators who had been thought-about most in danger.

“Abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming charge,” the article mentioned. “Independent providers are the most weak to anti-abortion attacks and violence directed at their staff.”