Professional-choice group claims arson assault on Wisconsin anti-abortion office | Wisconsin

Federal agents and detectives from the Madison police division are investigating a declare by a pro-choice group that it was behind a weekend arson attack on an anti-abortion workplace in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Family Action in Madison was attacked in 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. Nobody was hurt.

In an announcement reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which mentioned it was unable to confirm the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge stated it launched the assault because of the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that similar establishments across the US disband or face “increasingly extreme ways”.

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, but we're everywhere in the US, and we are going to problem no further warnings,” the assertion stated, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate docs with impunity” as justification.

The Madison attack got here days after the leaking of a supreme court draft ruling that will overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade resolution 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) told the Guardian that its agents were aware of the group’s claims of accountability, but cited the ongoing investigation for being unable to give more particulars.

The Madison police department mentioned it was “conscious of a gaggle claiming accountability for the arson at Wisconsin Household Motion and are working with our federal partners to find out the veracity of that claim”.

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

At a press convention on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF agents 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 workplace in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, said no suspects had up to now been recognized. Authorities have been expected to provide an additional replace on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We help the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception by pure demise. This includes opposing legislation 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 have to see a much stronger message of condemnation of this exercise from our Governor [and] from local law 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: “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 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 extreme 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 useless in a church in Wichita.

In March, MS magazine reported that the variety of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly because of the fixed threat of violence against personnel. Six states, MS stated, had only one abortion supplier, principally small, impartial operators who had been thought-about most in danger.

“Abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming fee,” the article stated. “Independent suppliers are probably the most susceptible to anti-abortion assaults and violence directed at their staff.”