Pro-choice group claims arson attack 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 office in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Household Action in Madison was attacked within the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown via a window, beginning a small hearth, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. Nobody was harm.

In an announcement reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which mentioned it was unable to confirm the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge stated it launched the attack because of the organization’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that related establishments across the US disband or face “increasingly extreme techniques”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, but we are everywhere in the US, and we are going to issue no further warnings,” the statement mentioned, 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 will 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) instructed the Guardian that its brokers have been aware of the group’s claims of responsibility, however cited the continued investigation for being unable to offer more particulars.

The Madison police department stated it was “aware of a group claiming duty for the arson at Wisconsin Family Action and are working with our federal partners to find out the veracity of that claim”.

It urged anyone with related info to make contact, saying: “We take all information and tips related to this case severely and are working to vet every one.”

At a press convention on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF brokers 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, mentioned no suspects had thus far been identified. Authorities have been anticipated to offer an extra replace on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We assist the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception by way of pure dying. This contains opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which starts at conception – by 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 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 accept that kind of violence here.”

An attack on an anti-abortion workplace 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 among more 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 provider, was shot dead in a church in Wichita.

In March, MS magazine reported that the variety of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly because of the fixed risk of violence against personnel. Six states, MS said, had only one abortion supplier, principally small, independent operators who had been considered most in danger.

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