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

Federal agents and detectives from the Madison police division are investigating a claim by a pro-choice group that it was behind a weekend arson assault on an anti-abortion office in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Household Motion in Madison was attacked within the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown via a window, starting a small fire, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No one was hurt.

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 mentioned it launched the attack due to the organization’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that comparable establishments throughout the US disband or face “increasingly excessive techniques”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, however we are all over the US, and we will issue no additional warnings,” the assertion said, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate medical doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison attack got here days after the leaking of a supreme courtroom draft ruling that might overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade determination 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) advised the Guardian that its brokers have been aware of the group’s claims of duty, but cited the continuing investigation for being unable to present 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 claim”.

It urged anyone with related data to make contact, saying: “We take all data and tips associated to this case significantly and are working to vet each and 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, said no suspects had to date been recognized. Authorities have been anticipated to give an additional 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 help the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception via pure demise. This includes opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – via 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 assault “a horrible incident”.

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

An assault 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 amenities.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid attacks have been amongst greater than 300 acts of extreme violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the most 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 number of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly because of the fixed risk of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS mentioned, had only one abortion provider, principally small, unbiased operators who were thought of most at risk.

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