Pro-choice group claims arson attack 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 assault on an anti-abortion workplace in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Family Motion 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 hurt.

In an announcement 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 attack 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 primary flashpoint, but we're everywhere in the US, and we will issue no further warnings,” the statement said, citing the violence of anti-choice teams who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison assault got here days after the leaking of a supreme court docket draft ruling that will overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade determination 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 duty, but cited the continued investigation for being unable to offer extra particulars.

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

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

At a press convention on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF brokers introduced a joint investigation into what it referred to as 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 to date been identified. Authorities had been expected to give a further update on Tuesday afternoon.

In a values statement on its website, Wisconsin Family 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 second of conception through natural demise. This consists of opposing laws that promotes the destruction of human life – which starts at conception – by way of 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 much stronger message of condemnation of this activity from our Governor [and] from native regulation enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press convention on Monday, Evers known 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 kind of violence here.”

An assault on an anti-abortion workplace is a relative rarity in contrast 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 were among greater than 300 acts of maximum violence recorded by the Rand Company between 1973 and 2003, and in some of the 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 number of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly due to the constant risk of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS said, had just one abortion provider, principally small, impartial operators who were considered most in danger.

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