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

Federal brokers and detectives from the Madison police division are investigating a claim 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 within the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown through a window, starting a small hearth, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. Nobody 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 because of the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that comparable establishments across the US disband or face “increasingly extreme techniques”.

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, but we are all around the US, and we'll issue no additional warnings,” the assertion said, citing the violence of anti-choice teams who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate docs with impunity” as justification.

The Madison assault came days after the leaking of a supreme court draft ruling that may overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade resolution and end virtually 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 have been conscious of the group’s claims of accountability, but cited the continuing investigation for being unable to provide extra details.

The Madison police department stated it was “conscious of a bunch claiming responsibility for the arson at Wisconsin Household Action and are working with our federal companions to determine the veracity of that declare”.

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

At a press convention 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 assault of a pro-life advocacy office in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, stated no suspects had to this point been recognized. Authorities were expected to provide an extra 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 support the sanctity of human life from the second of conception by way of pure demise. This consists of opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which starts 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 activity from our Governor [and] from native legislation enforcement,” he wrote.

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

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

An attack on an anti-abortion office is a relative rarity compared with attacks 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 have been among more than 300 acts of maximum 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 because of the fixed risk of violence against personnel. Six states, MS said, had just one abortion provider, largely small, impartial operators who were thought of most at risk.

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