Pro-choice group claims arson attack on Wisconsin anti-abortion workplace | 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 within the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown through a window, starting a small fire, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No person was harm.

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

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, however we are everywhere in the US, and we will issue no additional warnings,” the assertion mentioned, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate medical doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison attack came days after the leaking of a supreme court docket 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) instructed the Guardian that its brokers have been aware of the group’s claims of duty, however cited the continued investigation for being unable to provide more particulars.

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

It urged anyone with relevant information to make contact, saying: “We take all data and tips associated to this case critically 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 known 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, mentioned no suspects had to this point been identified. Authorities have been expected to give a further update on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We assist the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception via pure loss of life. 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 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 much stronger message of condemnation of this exercise from our Governor [and] from native legislation enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press conference on Monday, Evers known as the assault “a horrible incident”.

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

An assault on an anti-abortion office 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 amongst more than 300 acts of extreme violence recorded by the Rand Corporation 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 journal reported that the variety of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly because of the constant risk of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS said, had only one abortion supplier, largely small, independent operators who had been thought-about most in danger.

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