The headquarters of an anti-abortion group in Madison, Vis, were set on fire Sunday morning in an act of vandalism involving an attempt to use a Molotov cocktail and graffiti reading “If abortion is not safe, so are you,” police said.
None of the group, Wisconsin Family Action, was in the building at the time and there are no reports of casualties. Although the Molotov cocktail, which was thrown out of a window, failed to ignite, the vandal or vandals started another fire nearby, authorities said. The fire burned part of a wall.
The Madison Police Department did not say whether it had made any arrests or more than one person.
“We have notified our federal partners of this incident and are working with them and the Madison Fire Department as we investigate the arson,” the department said in a statement.
The attack came almost a week after a draft Supreme Court ruling overturned Rowe v. Wade, a remarkable ruling that establishes a constitutional right to abortion. Wisconsin had an abortion ban that preceded Rowe by more than a century, but Democrat Gov. Gov. Tony Evers said he would block it. Wisconsin Family Action is a non-profit political advocacy group that promotes conservative policies on several issues, including abortion, within the Wisconsin government.
From Opinion: Rowe v. Wade Challenge
Commentary by opinion authors and Times columnists on the forthcoming Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“We have not done anything to guarantee this. “We need to be able to take different sides of the issue without fearing for our lives,” said Juliane Alling, president of Wisconsin Family Action. “If anyone was in the office, they would at least be hurt.
The Madison Fire Department first received a call about the fire around 6 a.m. Sunday. Shortly afterwards, firefighters and police arrived and quickly contained the fire. Ms Alling said she heard about the attack later in the morning as she prepared for Mother’s Day lunch at her church in Watertown, Wis.
“I got a call from the building management and said there was a break-in and a fire broke out,” Ms Alling said. She then went with a team member to the building, where they found “destruction and property damage.”
Ms Aplin said her office was the main target of the attack. Two windows were broken, and the water used to put out the fire caused more damage. Ms Alling said graffiti was particularly worrying. “When I approached the office and saw this, my immediate reaction was surprised by how obvious the threat was,” she said. Graffiti includes an anarchist symbol and the numbers 1312, a shorthand for anti-police insult.
A Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin also condemned the violence in a statement. “Our work to protect permanent access to reproductive care is rooted in love,” said group president Tanya Atkinson. “We condemn all forms of violence and hatred in our communities.”
In a statement to The New York Times, Tony Perkins, president of the Wisconsin Family Action Council for Family Studies, attributed the attack to left-wing extremists aimed at intimidating abortion opponents, and he vowed they would fail. “We are grateful for the unwavering leadership of Wisconsin Family Action and the dozens of family policy advice across the country that are committed to the sanctity of all human life,” he added.
Ms Aplin said she and others in the organization had received threats in the past and knew that some people would be angry after the Supreme Court’s draft expired.
“I automatically knew that anyone who took a stand on how the opinion was written probably needed to pay more attention to their safety,” she said. However, this type of direct attack was shocking, and she said it shook her sense of security.
She also said she would work on introducing new security measures in the office.
In a statement Sunday, Madison Police Chief Sean Barnes acknowledged heightened tensions in the community after a draft expired and condemned the attack.
“Our department supports and continues to support people to be able to speak freely and openly about their beliefs,” the statement said, “but we believe that all acts of violence, including the destruction of property, do not help any cause.”
Add Comment