Professional-choice group claims arson attack 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 through a window, starting a small hearth, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No person was harm.

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

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, however we're all around the US, and we are going to issue no additional warnings,” the assertion stated, citing the violence of anti-choice groups 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 might overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade determination 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) advised the Guardian that its brokers have been conscious of the group’s claims of accountability, but cited the continued investigation for being unable to offer extra details.

The Madison police department said it was “conscious of a bunch claiming accountability for the arson at Wisconsin Household Motion and are working with our federal companions to determine the veracity of that declare”.

It urged anybody with related information to make contact, saying: “We take all data and suggestions associated to this case seriously 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 known as an “abortion extremism case involving an arson and graffiti assault of a pro-life advocacy workplace in Madison”.

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

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

“We assist the sanctity of human life from the second of conception by pure demise. This includes opposing laws that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – through 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 have to see a a lot stronger message of condemnation of this exercise from our Governor [and] from local law enforcement,” he wrote.

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

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

An assault on an anti-abortion workplace is a relative rarity compared with assaults 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 facilities.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid attacks had been amongst more than 300 acts of extreme violence recorded by the Rand Company between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the most heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion provider, was shot lifeless 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 said, had just one abortion provider, mostly small, unbiased operators who had been thought-about most at risk.

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