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

Federal agents and detectives from the Madison police department are investigating a declare 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 via a window, beginning a small fire, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No person was damage.

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 stated it launched the attack because of the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that similar establishments across the US disband or face “more and more excessive techniques”.

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, however we're all around the US, and we are going to difficulty no further warnings,” the statement stated, 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 docket draft ruling that may 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) advised the Guardian that its brokers had been aware of the group’s claims of duty, however cited the continued investigation for being unable to provide extra details.

The Madison police division mentioned it was “aware of a gaggle claiming accountability 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 related data to make contact, saying: “We take all info and suggestions associated to this case critically and are working to vet every one.”

At a press convention on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF brokers announced a joint investigation into what it known 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, mentioned no suspects had up to now been identified. Authorities had been anticipated to provide an extra update on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We assist the sanctity of human life from the second of conception by way of natural demise. This includes opposing laws that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – via abortion and other 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 much stronger message of condemnation of this exercise from our Governor [and] from local regulation enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press convention 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 workplace 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 facilities.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid assaults were among greater than 300 acts of utmost 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 supplier, 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 towards personnel. Six states, MS said, had only one abortion provider, mostly small, independent operators who had been considered most at risk.

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