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

Federal brokers and detectives from the Madison police department are investigating a claim 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 via 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 stated it was unable to verify the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge said it launched the assault because of the organization’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that comparable establishments throughout the US disband or face “increasingly excessive tactics”.

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, however we are all over the US, and we are going to problem no further 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 got here days after the leaking of a supreme court draft ruling that would overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade choice and finish nearly 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 were aware of the group’s claims of responsibility, but cited the continuing investigation for being unable to give extra particulars.

The Madison police division said it was “aware of a group claiming duty for the arson at Wisconsin Household Action and are working with our federal companions to determine the veracity of that claim”.

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

At a press convention on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF agents announced a joint investigation into what it referred to 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, stated no suspects had thus far been recognized. Authorities have been anticipated to present a further update on Tuesday afternoon.

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

“We help the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception by way of natural dying. This includes opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins 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 exercise from our Governor [and] from native law 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: “Because the state of Wisconsin, we don’t settle for that sort of violence 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 services.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid attacks were amongst greater than 300 acts of utmost violence recorded by the Rand Corporation 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 fixed menace of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS said, had just one abortion provider, principally small, independent operators who were thought of most at risk.

“Abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming rate,” the article mentioned. “Unbiased suppliers are probably the most vulnerable to anti-abortion attacks and violence directed at their employees.”