Pro-choice group claims arson attack 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 assault 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 fire, 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 attack due to the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that similar institutions throughout the US disband or face “increasingly extreme techniques”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, however we're everywhere in the US, and we'll concern no further warnings,” the statement mentioned, 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 courtroom draft ruling that would overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade decision 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) informed the Guardian that its brokers have been conscious of the group’s claims of responsibility, but cited the continued investigation for being unable to present more particulars.

The Madison police division stated it was “aware of a group claiming duty for the arson at Wisconsin Household Motion and are working with our federal partners to determine the veracity of that declare”.

It urged anybody with related info to make contact, saying: “We take all data and suggestions associated to this case seriously and are working to vet each one.”

At a press conference 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, mentioned no suspects had up to now been identified. Authorities had been anticipated to offer an additional replace on Tuesday afternoon.

In a values statement on its website, Wisconsin Family Motion (WFA) describes itself as a Judeo-Christian group dedicated to “strengthening, preserving, and promoting marriage, household, life and liberty.

“We help the sanctity of human life from the second of conception through natural loss of life. This consists of opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which starts at conception – by means 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 have to see a a lot stronger message of condemnation of this exercise from our Governor [and] from native regulation 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: “As the state of Wisconsin, we don’t settle for that type of violence here.”

An attack on an anti-abortion office 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 services.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid assaults had been amongst more than 300 acts of maximum violence recorded by the Rand Company between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the vital heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion supplier, was shot useless 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 menace of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS stated, had only one abortion supplier, largely small, unbiased operators who had been thought of most at risk.

“Abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming price,” the article mentioned. “Unbiased providers are probably the most weak to anti-abortion assaults and violence directed at their employees.”