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

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

In a press release 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 assault due to the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that similar institutions throughout the US disband or face “more and more excessive ways”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, however we're everywhere in the US, and we are going to subject no additional warnings,” the statement mentioned, citing the violence of anti-choice teams who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate medical doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison attack came days after the leaking of a supreme court docket draft ruling that will overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade determination and end 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 brokers have been conscious of the group’s claims of duty, however cited the ongoing investigation for being unable to provide extra details.

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

It urged anybody with relevant info 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 agents announced a joint investigation into what it called an “abortion extremism case involving an arson and graffiti attack of a pro-life advocacy workplace in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, said no suspects had up to now been identified. Authorities were expected to provide a further replace on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We help the sanctity of human life from the second of conception by means of pure loss of life. This includes opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which starts 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 exercise from our Governor [and] from local regulation enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press convention on Monday, Evers referred to as 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 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 amenities.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid attacks were among greater than 300 acts of utmost violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the vital 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 fixed menace of violence against personnel. Six states, MS stated, had only one abortion supplier, mostly small, impartial operators who were thought of most in danger.

“Abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming fee,” the article stated. “Impartial providers are essentially the most weak to anti-abortion attacks and violence directed at their workers.”