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

Federal brokers and detectives from the Madison police department 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 Family Motion in Madison was attacked in the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown through a window, beginning a small fire, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No person was hurt.

In a press release reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which said 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 related establishments throughout the US disband or face “increasingly excessive ways”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, but we're all around the US, and we will concern no additional warnings,” the statement mentioned, 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 courtroom draft ruling that might overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade resolution and finish virtually 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 conscious of the group’s claims of duty, however cited the ongoing investigation for being unable to give extra details.

The Madison police department said it was “conscious of a bunch claiming responsibility for the arson at Wisconsin Household Action and are working with our federal companions to find out the veracity of that claim”.

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

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF agents announced 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 so far been identified. Authorities had been expected to provide a further update 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 promoting marriage, family, life and liberty.

“We assist the sanctity of human life from the second of conception by way of pure death. This contains opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which starts at conception – by way of 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 a lot stronger message of condemnation of this activity from our Governor [and] from native law enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press convention on Monday, Evers referred to as the attack “a horrible incident”.

Calling for a full investigation and arrests, he added: “Because the state of Wisconsin, we don’t settle for that type 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 amongst more than 300 acts of extreme violence recorded by the Rand Company 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 magazine 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 only one abortion provider, principally small, impartial operators who had been thought-about most at risk.

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