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

Federal agents 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 workplace in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Family Action in Madison was attacked in the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown via a window, beginning a small fireplace, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No person was harm.

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

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, but we're everywhere in the US, and we'll difficulty no further warnings,” the assertion stated, citing the violence of anti-choice teams who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate docs with impunity” as justification.

The Madison assault got here days after the leaking of a supreme court draft ruling that will overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade choice and finish nearly 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 were aware of the group’s claims of duty, but cited the continuing investigation for being unable to provide more particulars.

The Madison police department mentioned it was “aware of a gaggle claiming responsibility for the arson at Wisconsin Household Motion and are working with our federal companions to determine the veracity of that claim”.

It urged anybody with relevant info to make contact, saying: “We take all info and ideas associated to this case significantly 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 referred to as an “abortion extremism case involving an arson and graffiti attack of a pro-life advocacy workplace in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, stated no suspects had up to now been recognized. Authorities had been anticipated to provide an extra replace on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We assist the sanctity of human life from the second of conception by pure loss of life. This consists of opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – by abortion and different 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 native legislation 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 type of violence here.”

An assault on an anti-abortion office is a relative rarity compared 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 amenities.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid attacks were amongst more than 300 acts of utmost violence recorded by the Rand Company between 1973 and 2003, and in some of the heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion supplier, was shot useless 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 constant threat of violence against personnel. Six states, MS mentioned, had only one abortion supplier, largely small, independent operators who were considered most in danger.

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