Pro-choice group claims arson assault 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 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 a window, starting a small fire, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No person was harm.

In a press release reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which mentioned it was unable to confirm the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge said it launched the assault because of the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that comparable establishments throughout the US disband or face “more and more extreme techniques”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, but we're all around the US, and we are going to situation no further warnings,” the statement said, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison assault came days after the leaking of a supreme courtroom draft ruling that may overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade choice 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) informed the Guardian that its brokers were conscious of the group’s claims of duty, however cited the continued investigation for being unable to offer extra particulars.

The Madison police division said it was “conscious of a bunch claiming responsibility for the arson at Wisconsin Family Motion and are working with our federal companions to determine the veracity of that claim”.

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

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF agents 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 so far been identified. Authorities have been expected to provide a further update on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We help the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception by way of natural death. This consists of opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – through 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 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 referred to 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 sort of violence here.”

An assault on an anti-abortion workplace is a relative rarity in contrast 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 facilities.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid assaults had been among greater than 300 acts of maximum violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the crucial 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 because of the fixed menace of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS stated, had just one abortion supplier, largely small, unbiased operators who were thought of most in danger.

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