Pro-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 Action 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 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 group’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that comparable institutions across the US disband or face “increasingly extreme ways”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, however we're all around the US, and we will difficulty no additional warnings,” the assertion said, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison attack came days after the leaking of a supreme court docket draft ruling that might overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade determination 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) informed the Guardian that its agents have been conscious of the group’s claims of accountability, but cited the continuing investigation for being unable to provide more particulars.

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

It urged anybody with related data to make contact, saying: “We take all information and suggestions associated to this case significantly 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 known as 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 additional update on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We help the sanctity of human life from the second of conception by way of natural loss of life. This includes opposing laws 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 activity from our Governor [and] from native regulation 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 accept that kind of violence here.”

An attack on an anti-abortion office is a relative rarity in contrast 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 attacks have 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 provider, 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 due to the fixed menace of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS said, had just one abortion supplier, mostly small, impartial operators who were thought of most at risk.

“Abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming rate,” the article stated. “Unbiased providers are the most susceptible to anti-abortion attacks and violence directed at their workers.”