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

Federal brokers 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 workplace in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Household Action in Madison was attacked within 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 one was hurt.

In an announcement reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which said it was unable to confirm the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge stated it launched the assault because of the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that comparable establishments throughout the US disband or face “more and more extreme ways”.

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, but we are all around the US, and we are going to challenge no further warnings,” the assertion mentioned, citing the violence of anti-choice teams 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 may 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) informed the Guardian that its brokers were conscious of the group’s claims of accountability, however cited the continuing investigation for being unable to present more details.

The Madison police division mentioned it was “conscious of a group claiming responsibility for the arson at Wisconsin Family Action and are working with our federal companions to find out the veracity of that claim”.

It urged anybody with relevant info to make contact, saying: “We take all information and ideas associated to this case seriously and are working to vet each one.”

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF agents introduced a joint investigation into what it referred to as an “abortion extremism case involving an arson and graffiti assault of a pro-life advocacy office in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, stated no suspects had so far been recognized. Authorities had been expected to present an additional replace on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We support the sanctity of human life from the second of conception through natural death. This includes opposing legislation 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 much stronger message of condemnation of this activity from our Governor [and] from local regulation 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: “Because the state of Wisconsin, we don’t accept that kind of violence here.”

An attack on an anti-abortion workplace is a relative rarity compared 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 services.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid attacks had been among greater than 300 acts of maximum violence recorded by the Rand Company between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the crucial heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion provider, was shot lifeless 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 risk of violence towards personnel. Six states, MS mentioned, had just one abortion supplier, largely small, impartial operators who were considered most in danger.

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