Pro-choice group claims arson assault on Wisconsin anti-abortion workplace | 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 assault on an anti-abortion office in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Family Motion 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. Nobody was harm.

In a press release reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which said it was unable to verify the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge said it launched the attack because of the group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that related institutions across the US disband or face “more and more excessive ways”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, but we are all over the US, and we are going to concern 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 court draft ruling that would overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade decision 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 were conscious of the group’s claims of responsibility, but cited the continued investigation for being unable to give extra particulars.

The Madison police department stated it was “aware of a group claiming accountability for the arson at Wisconsin Household Action and are working with our federal companions to determine the veracity of that claim”.

It urged anybody with relevant information to make contact, saying: “We take all information 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 brokers announced a joint investigation into what it known 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, mentioned no suspects had to date been recognized. Authorities had been anticipated to give a further update on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We support the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception by means of pure loss of life. This contains opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which starts at conception – through abortion and other 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 much stronger message of condemnation of this activity from our Governor [and] from native legislation enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press convention on Monday, Evers called 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 here.”

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

Arson, bombings, murders and acid assaults have been amongst greater than 300 acts of utmost violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion supplier, 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 threat of violence towards personnel. Six states, MS stated, had just one abortion provider, mostly small, unbiased operators who had been thought of most in danger.

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