Professional-choice group claims arson attack 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 Family Motion in Madison was attacked in the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown by means of a window, beginning a small hearth, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. Nobody was harm.

In a press release reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which said it was unable to verify 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 tactics”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, but we are all over the US, and we are going to concern no additional warnings,” the assertion stated, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate doctors with impunity” as justification.

The Madison assault got here days after the leaking of a supreme court draft ruling that might overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade resolution 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 brokers were conscious of the group’s claims of duty, but cited the ongoing investigation for being unable to give more particulars.

The Madison police division stated 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 claim”.

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

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

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, said no suspects had up to now been identified. Authorities had been expected to offer an extra replace on Tuesday afternoon.

In a values assertion on its website, Wisconsin Household Motion (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 means of pure death. This contains opposing legislation that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – by 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 a lot stronger message of condemnation of this activity from our Governor [and] from native law enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press conference on Monday, Evers called the assault “a horrible incident”.

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

An attack on an anti-abortion office is a relative rarity in contrast 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 assaults have been among more than 300 acts of extreme violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the vital 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 because of the constant threat of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS stated, had only one abortion provider, principally small, impartial operators who had been thought of most at risk.

“Abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming fee,” the article said. “Impartial providers are essentially the most vulnerable to anti-abortion attacks and violence directed at their workers.”