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

Federal brokers 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 Family Motion in Madison was attacked within the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown via a window, beginning a small hearth, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. Nobody was damage.

In an announcement 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 because of the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that similar establishments throughout the US disband or face “more and more extreme techniques”.

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, but we're everywhere in the US, and we'll problem 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 attack came days after the leaking of a supreme courtroom draft ruling that might overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade determination 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 aware of the group’s claims of responsibility, however cited the ongoing investigation for being unable to present more details.

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

It urged anybody with relevant data to make contact, saying: “We take all data and suggestions related to this case significantly and are working to vet each one.”

At a press convention on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF brokers announced 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, mentioned no suspects had up to now been recognized. Authorities had been expected to provide a further update on Tuesday afternoon.

In a values assertion on its web site, Wisconsin Household Action (WFA) describes itself as a Judeo-Christian group dedicated to “strengthening, preserving, and selling marriage, household, life and liberty.

“We support the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception via pure loss of life. This contains opposing laws that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – by 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 exercise from our Governor [and] from native legislation enforcement,” he wrote.

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

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

An assault on an anti-abortion office is a relative rarity compared 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 were among more than 300 acts of maximum violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the crucial 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 due to the constant menace of violence against personnel. Six states, MS said, had only one abortion supplier, mostly small, unbiased operators who were thought-about most at risk.

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