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

Federal agents and detectives from the Madison police department are investigating a claim by a pro-choice group that it was behind a weekend arson assault on an anti-abortion office in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Family Action in Madison was attacked within the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown by a window, beginning a small fire, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No person was damage.

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 said it launched the assault because of the organization’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that comparable institutions across the US disband or face “more and more extreme tactics”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, however we are all over 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 medical doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison attack came days after the leaking of a supreme courtroom draft ruling that will 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) 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 particulars.

The Madison police division said it was “aware of a group claiming responsibility for the arson at Wisconsin Family Motion and are working with our federal companions to determine the veracity of that declare”.

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

At a press conference 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 assault of a pro-life advocacy workplace in Madison”.

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

In a values statement on its website, Wisconsin Family Action (WFA) describes itself as a Judeo-Christian group dedicated to “strengthening, preserving, and promoting marriage, household, life and liberty.

“We assist the sanctity of human life from the second of conception via natural dying. This contains opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which starts at conception – via 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 have to see a much stronger message of condemnation of this exercise from our Governor [and] from native law enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press convention on Monday, Evers known as the attack “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 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 facilities.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid attacks have been among greater than 300 acts of maximum 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 supplier, was shot dead in a church in Wichita.

In March, MS magazine reported that the variety of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly because of the fixed threat of violence against personnel. Six states, MS mentioned, had only one abortion supplier, principally small, impartial operators who were thought-about most at risk.

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