Professional-choice group claims arson assault on Wisconsin anti-abortion workplace | 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 attack on an anti-abortion workplace in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Family Action in Madison was attacked in the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown by a window, starting a small hearth, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No one was harm.

In an announcement reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which stated 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 similar institutions throughout the US disband or face “increasingly excessive tactics”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, however we're all over the US, and we are going to issue no further warnings,” the statement said, citing the violence of anti-choice teams who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison attack got here days after the leaking of a supreme courtroom draft ruling that may overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade choice and end virtually half a century of constitutional abortion protections.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) told the Guardian that its brokers were aware of the group’s claims of responsibility, but cited the continuing investigation for being unable to provide more particulars.

The Madison police division mentioned it was “conscious of a bunch claiming duty for the arson at Wisconsin Household Motion and are working with our federal companions to determine the veracity of that claim”.

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

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

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

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

“We support the sanctity of human life from the second of conception by pure dying. This consists of opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – by 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 regulation enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press convention on Monday, Evers known as the assault “a horrible incident”.

Calling for a full investigation and arrests, he added: “Because the state of Wisconsin, we don’t accept that sort 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 assaults were amongst greater than 300 acts of extreme violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in some of the 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 due to the constant risk of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS said, had just one abortion supplier, principally small, impartial operators who have been thought of most at risk.

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