Pro-choice group claims arson assault 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 assault 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 through a window, beginning a small hearth, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No one was hurt.

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 mentioned it launched the attack because of the organization’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that related institutions across the US disband or face “increasingly excessive techniques”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, but we're everywhere in the US, and we'll difficulty no further warnings,” the assertion said, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate medical doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison assault came days after the leaking of a supreme court docket draft ruling that will 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 had been conscious of the group’s claims of accountability, but cited the continuing investigation for being unable to give extra details.

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

It urged anybody with relevant info to make contact, saying: “We take all information and ideas related to this case critically and are working to vet each one.”

At a press convention on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF agents announced a joint investigation into what it called an “abortion extremism case involving an arson and graffiti assault of a pro-life advocacy office in Madison”.

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

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

“We support the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception via natural demise. This includes opposing laws that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – by means 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 a lot stronger message of condemnation of this exercise from our Governor [and] from local legislation enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press convention on Monday, Evers called the assault “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 attack on an anti-abortion office is a relative rarity in contrast 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 attacks were amongst more than 300 acts of maximum violence recorded by the Rand Company between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion supplier, was shot useless in a church in Wichita.

In March, MS magazine reported that the number of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly because of the constant threat of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS said, had just one abortion supplier, largely small, unbiased operators who had been thought-about most at risk.

“Abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming charge,” the article stated. “Independent providers are the most susceptible to anti-abortion attacks and violence directed at their employees.”