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

Federal brokers and detectives from the Madison police department 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 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 press release 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 comparable establishments throughout the US disband or face “increasingly extreme techniques”.

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

The Madison assault got here days after the leaking of a supreme court docket draft ruling that might overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade choice 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) told the Guardian that its brokers had been conscious of the group’s claims of accountability, however cited the continued investigation for being unable to offer extra particulars.

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

It urged anyone with relevant info to make contact, saying: “We take all data and tips associated to this case severely and are working to vet each and every one.”

At a press convention on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF brokers introduced a joint investigation into what it called 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 expected to present 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 assist the sanctity of human life from the second of conception by way of pure dying. 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 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 much stronger message of condemnation of this activity from our Governor [and] from local legislation enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press conference on Monday, Evers called the assault “a horrible incident”.

Calling for a full investigation and arrests, he added: “As the state of Wisconsin, we don’t settle for that type 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 have been among more than 300 acts of utmost 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 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 in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS mentioned, had only one abortion supplier, mostly small, unbiased operators who had been thought of most in danger.

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