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

The headquarters of Wisconsin Household Action in Madison was attacked in the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown through a window, beginning a small fire, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. Nobody was hurt.

In a statement reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which mentioned it was unable to verify the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge said it launched the assault due to the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that similar institutions throughout the US disband or face “increasingly excessive ways”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, but we are everywhere in the US, and we are going to problem no additional warnings,” the assertion said, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison attack came days after the leaking of a supreme courtroom draft ruling that might overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade decision and end nearly 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 agents have been aware of the group’s claims of responsibility, however cited the continuing investigation for being unable to give extra particulars.

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

It urged anyone with relevant data to make contact, saying: “We take all data 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 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 workplace in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, stated no suspects had to date been recognized. Authorities were anticipated to give an additional update on Tuesday afternoon.

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

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

At a press conference on Monday, Evers referred to as the assault “a horrible incident”.

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

An assault on an anti-abortion workplace is a relative rarity compared 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 assaults had been amongst more than 300 acts of extreme violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the most heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion supplier, was shot useless 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 constant threat of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS mentioned, had only one abortion provider, mostly small, unbiased operators who have been considered most in danger.

“Abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming charge,” the article stated. “Unbiased suppliers are essentially the most vulnerable to anti-abortion assaults and violence directed at their employees.”