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

Federal agents and detectives from the Madison police department 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 Household Action in Madison was attacked within the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown via a window, starting a small hearth, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No person was harm.

In a press release reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which mentioned 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 comparable establishments throughout the US disband or face “more and more excessive ways”.

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, however we're all around the US, and we'll concern no additional warnings,” the assertion mentioned, 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 docket draft ruling that will overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade choice and end nearly half a century of constitutional abortion protections.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) instructed the Guardian that its agents have been aware of the group’s claims of accountability, 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 find out the veracity of that claim”.

It urged anybody with related info to make contact, saying: “We take all info and tips associated to this case critically and are working to vet every one.”

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF brokers 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 were expected to provide a further replace on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We assist the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception by means of pure loss of life. This contains opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which starts at conception – by means of abortion and different 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 law enforcement,” he wrote.

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

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

An attack on an anti-abortion office is a relative rarity in contrast with attacks 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 extreme violence recorded by the Rand Company 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 variety of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly due to the fixed risk of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS said, had just one abortion supplier, principally small, impartial operators who had been considered most at risk.

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