[News] Anti-Abortion Group in Wisconsin Is Hit by Arson, Authorities Say

Tue May 10 13:20:21 EDT 2022

First Communiqué

This is not a declaration of war. War has been upon us for decades. A war
which we did not want, and did not provoke. Too long have we been attacked
for asking for basic medical care. Too long have we been shot, bombed, and
forced into childbirth without consent.

This was only a warning. We demand the disbanding of all anti-choice
establishments, fake clinics, and violent anti-choice groups within the
next thirty days. This is not a mere "difference of opinion" as some have
framed it. We are literally fighting for our lives. We will not sit still
while we are killed and forced into servitude. We have run thin on patience
and mercy for those who seek to strip us of what little autonomy we have
left. As you continue to bomb clinics and assassinate doctors with
impunity, so too shall we adopt increasingly extreme tactics to maintain
freedom over our own bodies.

We are forced to adopt the minimum military requirement for a political
struggle. Again, this was only a warning. Next time the infrastructure of
the enslavers will not survive. Medical imperialism will not face a passive
enemy. Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, but we are all over the US, and
we will issue no further warnings.

And we will not stop, we will not back down, nor will we hesitate to strike
until the inalienable right to manage our own health is returned to us.

We are not one group, but many. We are in your city. We are in every city.
Your repression only strengthens our accomplice-ship and resolve.

     -Jane's Revenge

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/08/us/madison-anti-abortion-center-vandalized.html

*Anti-Abortion Group in Wisconsin Is Hit by Arson, Authorities Say*

A Molotov cocktail was used against Wisconsin Family Action in Madison and
did not ignite, but another fire was set, the police said.
[image: image.png]

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Credit...Andy Manis for The New York Times

By Luke Vander Ploeg and Addison Lathers - May 8, 2022

The headquarters of an anti-abortion group in Madison, Wis., was set on
fire on Sunday morning in an act of vandalism that included the attempted
use of a Molotov cocktail and graffiti that read “If abortions aren’t safe
then you aren’t either,” according to the police.

No one in the group, Wisconsin Family Action, was in the building at the
time, and there were no injuries reported. Although the Molotov cocktail
that was thrown through a window failed to ignite, the vandal or vandals
started another fire nearby, the authorities said. The fire burned part of
a wall.

The Madison Police Department did not say whether it had made any arrests
or whether more than one person was involved.

“We have made our federal partners aware of this incident and are working
with them and the Madison Fire Department as we investigate this arson,”
the department said in a statement.

The attack came nearly a week after the leak of a draft ruling by the
Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v. Wade
<https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/02/us/roe-v-wade-abortion-supreme-court>,
the landmark decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.
Wisconsin has a law banning abortions
<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/us/abortion-bans-restrictons-roe-v-wade.html>
that predates Roe by more than a century, but Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat,
has said he would block its implementation. Wisconsin Family Action is a
nonprofit political advocacy group that promotes conservative policies on
several issues, including abortion, within the Wisconsin state government.

“There’s nothing we have done to warrant this. We ought to be able to take
different sides on issues without fearing for our lives,” said Julaine
Appling, the president of Wisconsin Family Action. “Had anybody been in the
office, they would have, at a minimum, been hurt.”
[image: image.png]

Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action.Credit...Andy Manis
for The New York Times

The Madison Fire Department first received a call about the fire at around
6 a.m. on Sunday. Firefighters and police officers arrived shortly after
and quickly brought the fire under control. Ms. Appling said that she heard
about the attack later in the morning while preparing for a Mother’s Day
brunch at her church in Watertown, Wis.

“I got a call from building management here saying there had been a
break-in and a fire started,” Ms. Appling said. She then went with a team
member to the building, where they discovered “the havoc and property
damage.”

Ms. Appling said that her office was the main target of the attack. Two
windows had been smashed, and water that was used to put out the fire had
caused more damage. Ms. Appling said the graffiti was particularly
disturbing. “As I drove up to the office and I saw that, my immediate
reaction was surprise at how overt the threat was,” she said. The graffiti
included an anarchist symbol and the numbers 1312, a shorthand for an
anti-police slur.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin also denounced the violence in a statement.
“Our work to protect continued access to reproductive care is rooted in
love,” the group’s president, Tanya Atkinson, said. “We condemn all forms
of violence and hatred within our communities.”

In a statement to The New York Times, Tony Perkins, the president of the
Family Research Council, which works with Wisconsin Family Action,
attributed the attack to left-wing extremists who aim to intimidate
abortion opponents, and he vowed that they would not succeed. “We are
grateful for the unwavering leadership of Wisconsin Family Action and the
dozens of family policy councils around the country that are committed to
the sanctity of all human life,” he added.

The north side of Madison, where Wisconsin Family Action calls home, is not
a sleepy neighborhood. Directly off a busy street, International Lane, the
group’s long brown office building is tucked next to the Dane County
Regional Airport, among other nondescript corporate offices. All of the
businesses were empty on Sunday morning, though a steady stream of cars
passed by.
[image: image.png]

Wisconsin Family Action plans to upgrade its security before employees
return to the office.Credit...Andy Manis for The New York Times

Ms. Appling said she and others at the organization had received threats in
the past and that she knew that some people would be angry after the
Supreme Court draft ruling was leaked.
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