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 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, beginning a small hearth, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No one was hurt.

In a statement reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which mentioned it was unable to confirm the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge said 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 first flashpoint, however we are everywhere in the US, and we are going to challenge no additional warnings,” the assertion mentioned, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate medical doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison assault got here days after the leaking of a supreme courtroom 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 had been conscious of the group’s claims of accountability, however cited the continued investigation for being unable to offer more details.

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

It urged anyone with relevant data to make contact, saying: “We take all info and ideas related to this case severely and are working to vet each one.”

At a press convention on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF agents introduced a joint investigation into what it known as an “abortion extremism case involving an arson and graffiti attack of a pro-life advocacy office in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, said no suspects had up to now been recognized. Authorities had been expected to present an additional update on Tuesday afternoon.

In a values statement on its website, 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 pure loss of life. This includes opposing laws that promotes the destruction of human life – which starts at conception – through 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 activity from our Governor [and] from native legislation enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press conference on Monday, Evers known as the attack “a horrible incident”.

Calling for a full investigation and arrests, he added: “Because the state of Wisconsin, we don’t accept that sort of violence right here.”

An attack on an anti-abortion workplace is a relative rarity compared with attacks on abortion clinics and suppliers. In 2019, the Guardian reported on an “alarming escalation” in picketing, vandalism and trespassing by anti-abortion activists at medical amenities.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid assaults have been among greater than 300 acts of utmost violence recorded by the Rand Company between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the crucial 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 fixed risk of violence towards personnel. Six states, MS stated, had just one abortion provider, mostly small, independent operators who have been thought of most in danger.

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