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 Household Motion in Madison was attacked within the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown by means of a window, beginning a small fire, 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 stated it was unable to confirm the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge said it launched the assault because of the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that related establishments throughout the US disband or face “increasingly extreme techniques”.

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, however we're everywhere in the US, and we will situation no further warnings,” the assertion mentioned, citing the violence of anti-choice teams who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate medical doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison attack got here days after the leaking of a supreme court docket draft ruling that will 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 agents have been aware of the group’s claims of responsibility, however cited the ongoing investigation for being unable to give extra particulars.

The Madison police division stated it was “conscious of a bunch claiming responsibility for the arson at Wisconsin Household Motion and are working with our federal partners to find out the veracity of that declare”.

It urged anybody with related data to make contact, saying: “We take all information and suggestions associated to this case significantly and are working to vet each one.”

At a press conference 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 office in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, said no suspects had up to now been recognized. Authorities have been anticipated to offer a further replace on Tuesday afternoon.

In a values statement on its web site, 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 natural death. This includes opposing laws that promotes the destruction of human life – which starts at conception – through 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 have 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 convention 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 accept that kind of violence right here.”

An attack 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 services.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid attacks were amongst more than 300 acts of extreme violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in probably the most heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion supplier, was shot useless in a church in Wichita.

In March, MS journal reported that the variety of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly because of the fixed menace of violence towards personnel. Six states, MS said, had only one abortion supplier, mostly small, independent operators who have been thought of most at risk.

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