Pro-choice group claims arson assault 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 assault on an anti-abortion workplace in Wisconsin.

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

In a statement reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which said it was unable to confirm the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge said it launched the assault because of the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that similar establishments across the US disband or face “increasingly extreme ways”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, however we're all over the US, and we will difficulty no additional warnings,” the statement said, citing the violence of anti-choice teams who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate medical doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison assault got here days after the leaking of a supreme courtroom draft ruling that may overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade resolution and finish virtually 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 agents had been conscious of the group’s claims of accountability, but cited the continuing investigation for being unable to provide more particulars.

The Madison police department stated it was “aware of a gaggle claiming accountability for the arson at Wisconsin Family Motion and are working with our federal partners to determine the veracity of that declare”.

It urged anyone with related data to make contact, saying: “We take all information and ideas related to this case critically 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 known 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, stated no suspects had to date been identified. Authorities had been anticipated to present an extra 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 natural demise. This includes opposing legislation 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 much stronger message of condemnation of this exercise from our Governor [and] from local law enforcement,” he wrote.

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

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

An attack on an anti-abortion office 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 facilities.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid assaults had been amongst more than 300 acts of utmost violence recorded by the Rand Company between 1973 and 2003, and in probably the most heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion supplier, was shot dead 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 menace of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS mentioned, had just one abortion supplier, largely small, impartial operators who had been thought of most at risk.

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