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

Federal brokers and detectives from the Madison police division are investigating a declare 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 Motion in Madison was attacked within the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown through a window, beginning a small fireplace, 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 confirm the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge mentioned it launched the attack because of the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that similar establishments throughout the US disband or face “increasingly extreme ways”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, but we are all around the US, and we are going to concern no additional warnings,” the statement mentioned, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison assault got here days after the leaking of a supreme court docket draft ruling that will overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade choice 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) advised the Guardian that its agents were conscious of the group’s claims of accountability, however cited the continuing investigation for being unable to provide more details.

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

It urged anybody with related data to make contact, saying: “We take all info and tips associated to this case seriously 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 attack of a pro-life advocacy office in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, said no suspects had thus far been recognized. Authorities were anticipated to give an extra replace on Tuesday afternoon.

In a values statement on its web site, Wisconsin Family Motion (WFA) describes itself as a Judeo-Christian group devoted to “strengthening, preserving, and selling marriage, household, life and liberty.

“We support the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception through pure loss of life. This contains 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 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 a lot 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: “As the state of Wisconsin, we don’t settle for that kind of violence right here.”

An assault on an anti-abortion office is a relative rarity in contrast 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 facilities.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid attacks were amongst more than 300 acts of extreme violence recorded by the Rand Company between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the crucial heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion provider, was shot dead 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 fixed menace of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS stated, had only one abortion provider, largely small, unbiased operators who had been thought of most in danger.

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