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

Federal agents 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 workplace in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Family Action in Madison was attacked within the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown by way of a window, starting a small hearth, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No person was harm.

In a statement reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which said it was unable to verify the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge mentioned it launched the attack due to 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, however we're all around the US, and we'll situation no further warnings,” the statement mentioned, citing the violence of anti-choice teams who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate docs with impunity” as justification.

The Madison attack came days after the leaking of a supreme courtroom 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) informed the Guardian that its brokers had been aware of the group’s claims of duty, however cited the continuing investigation for being unable to give extra details.

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

It urged anyone with related info to make contact, saying: “We take all information and ideas related to this case seriously and are working to vet every one.”

At a press convention on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF brokers introduced a joint investigation into what it referred to 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, said no suspects had thus far been identified. Authorities were anticipated to offer an additional update on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We support the sanctity of human life from the second of conception through pure demise. This includes 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 need to see a much stronger message of condemnation of this exercise 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 kind of violence here.”

An attack on an anti-abortion workplace is a relative rarity compared 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 have been among more than 300 acts of extreme violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in some of the 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 variety of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly because of the constant menace of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS said, had just one abortion provider, largely small, impartial operators who had been considered most at risk.

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