Professional-choice group claims arson assault on Wisconsin anti-abortion workplace | Wisconsin

Federal brokers 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 through 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 mentioned it was unable to confirm the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge mentioned it launched the attack due to the organization’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that similar institutions across the US disband or face “more and more extreme ways”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, however we are all around the US, and we'll issue no additional warnings,” the assertion said, citing the violence of anti-choice teams who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate docs with impunity” as justification.

The Madison assault came days after the leaking of a supreme court docket draft ruling that would overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade choice and end almost 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 agents have been conscious of the group’s claims of accountability, but cited the ongoing investigation for being unable to offer more particulars.

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

It urged anyone with relevant data to make contact, saying: “We take all info and tips 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 introduced a joint investigation into what it called an “abortion extremism case involving an arson and graffiti attack of a pro-life advocacy workplace in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, mentioned no suspects had thus far been recognized. Authorities have been anticipated to provide an extra update on Tuesday afternoon.

In a values assertion on its website, Wisconsin Family Motion (WFA) describes itself as a Judeo-Christian group devoted 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 natural demise. This contains opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – by way of 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 much stronger message of condemnation of this exercise from our Governor [and] from local legislation 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: “As the state of Wisconsin, we don’t settle for that sort of violence right here.”

An attack 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 services.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid attacks had been among more than 300 acts of extreme violence recorded by the Rand Company 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 magazine reported that the number of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly because of the fixed threat of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS mentioned, had just one abortion supplier, mostly small, impartial operators who have been considered most at risk.

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