Papers move, scrap "Doonesbury" abortion law strip
In this April 5, 2008 file photo, Gary B. Trudeau, cartoonist and creator of "Doonesbury," speaks in New Haven, Conn. Universal Press Syndicate will offer replacement Doonesbury comic strips next week to newspapers that don't want to run a series focusing on a Texas law that requires women to have an ultrasound before getting an abortion, officials said Friday, March 9. 2012. / AP Photo/Douglas Healey, File
Updated March 10, 6:20 PM ET
(AP) KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A national syndicate will offer replacement "Doonesbury" comic strips to newspapers that don't want to run a series that uses graphic imagery to lampoon a Texas law requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion, executives said Friday.
A handful of newspapers say they won't run next week's series, while several others said the strips will move from the comics to opinion pages or websites only. Many already publish the strip by cartoonist Garry Trudeau, whose sarcastic swipes at society's foibles have a history of giving headaches to newspaper editors, on editorial pages.
"We run `Doonesbury' on our op-ed page, and this series is an example of why," said David Averill, editorial page editor for the Tulsa World. "Many of our readers will disagree with the political stance the series takes, and some will be offended by the clinical language. I believe, however, that this series of strips is appropriate to the abortion debate and appropriate to our op-ed pages."
The comic strips feature a woman who goes to an abortion clinic and is confronted by several people who suggest she should be ashamed. Among them is a doctor who reads a script on behalf of Texas Gov. Rick Perry welcoming her to a "compulsory transvaginal exam," and a middle-aged legislator who calls her a "slut."
One panel equates the invasive procedure to rape and describes the device used to perform it as a "10-inch shaming wand."
"Our readers are accustomed to pointed political and social commentary in strips like `Doonesbury' and `Mallard Fillmore,"' Tom McNiff, managing editor of The Gainesville Sun and Ocala Star-Banner in central Florida, said in an emailed statement explaining the decision not to run the series. "But the language the author used to make his point in two of the strips was quite graphic for a general readership."
Trudeau said Friday that "it would have been a little surprising" if there hadn't been any pushback against the series.
"Abortion remains a deeply contentious subject. Having said that, the goal is definitely not to antagonize editors and get booted from papers," he said in an email to The Associated Press. "It's just an occupational risk."
Texas' law does not specify the type of sonogram a woman must receive, but a transvaginal ultrasound is necessary to meet requirements that the doctor show the woman an image of the fetus, describe its features and make the fetal heartbeat audible in the first trimester. The procedure uses a wand inserted in the vagina to yield an image instead of a wand rubbed over a woman's belly.
Asked for comment on the "Doonesbury" series, Perry spokesman Catherine Frazier said the governor is proud of his leadership on the sonogram law.
"The decision to end a life is not funny," Frazier said. "There is nothing comic about this tasteless interpretation of legislation we have passed in Texas to ensure that women have all the facts when making a life-ending decision."
Sue Roush, managing editor at the Universal UClick syndicate, said newspapers uncomfortable with the abortion law series have the option of a set of substitute strips.
Steve Shirk, manager editor of The Kansas City Star, said his paper would use the replacements in the comics section. The paper also plans to publish the series about the abortion issue in its opinion section.
"We felt the content was too much for many of the readers of our family friendly comic page," Shirk said. "We felt that (op-ed) page was more appropriate for that story line."
Dennis Ryerson, editor of the Indianapolis Star, said the newspaper would use an earlier "Doonesbury" strip instead.
"We simply don't want to be part of the personalization and debasement of political discourse. We've had too much of that from all sides," Ryerson said.
Chris Mele, executive editor of the Pocono Record in Stroudsburg, Pa., said the paper will run the replacement strips during the week, but the Texas series will appear March 18 on the front of its op-ed section. He said the paper would try to "have a dialogue" with its readers about the debate.
Universal UClick president Lee Salem said he wouldn't be surprised if 20 to 30 of the 1,400 newspapers that carry "Doonesbury" decided to opt out and run the replacements.
"Once every five or six months there's usually something in `Doonesbury' that causes a stir. Every two or three years there's something that causes a bigger stir," Salem said. "Historically, that's par for the course with `Doonesbury' because Garry explores topics on comics pages that are not normally there."
Six installments of "Doonesbury" satirizing the anti-abortion movie "The Silent Scream" were canceled in 1985 when the syndicate decided they were too controversial to be distributed.
Other states have enacted laws requiring pre-abortion ultrasounds, although Virginia removed a provision from its measure that specifically called for the invasive exam. The measure in its original form had become a target of national political columnists and the word "transvaginal" was mocked and parodied on "Saturday Night Live" and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."
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Hurray for freedom and self-determination! Down with people who force their beliefs on others! Can't wait for Jesus to come pick you guys up! The world will be better off without you. Much much freer.
The Religious Right is against birth control & abortion. But not against war where young people die. I'm I missing something here?
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Yes, you are. It's called REALITY. Catholics are against birth control- not the Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalians, and 99% of all the others you care to name. Please try to THINK before you type.
Secondly, abortion is something that offends most of the people in the world, not just those in the United States, but then again, MOST people in the world actually have a conscience knowledge of what is right and wrong. Sadly, I fear that particular education of strength is fast dieing off in the the youth of this country.
The only men, (and I use the term MEN very loosely here) I have found that were pro abortion have been those who fear having to actually stand accountable for their 'mistake' last Friday night, or are ones who are cheating on their wife at every given opportunity with anyone who is willing to offer, or are those who think that having an extra appendage somehow entitles them into some sorted concept of sovereignty of their own domain.
The only women I have ever met who are pro-abortion, varied by several points, but still share one common ideal: They think of sex as an act of nothing more than their animal right, and are willing to offer it to just about anyone who asks, for the sole purpose of attempting to prove to themselves that ALL men find them alluring, exotic and attractive, so that they themselves can actually believe they have something important to offer to the world.
Yet absolutely NONE of them, MEN or WOMEN, seem to have had the tiniest clue as to what it truly means to become empowered as a woman.
I, myself, am pro-choice.
1.) I believe EVERY WOMAN has the right of choice deciding whether or not she wishes to remove her clothes.
2.) I believe EVERY woman deserves a second chance, and I believe the world is much better off when that second 'chance' pops blue on the test strip, that she be mandatorily required to prevent any and all future 'mistakes' from happening to her body and to her life ever again.
Murder is murder.
Soldiers are not murderers.
Our soldiers defend the right for anyone to mouth off on a web site with some stupid sputtered comment, that I dare say, they would never utter in public if their face was actually linked to the comment. We- MOTHERS of those soldiers- do not send our children out to die. We send our children out so that YOU won't have to die.
Hey lefwing killers, abortions will one day again be illegal in the land of "LIFE" Libery and the prusuit of happiness
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The world population has more than doubled since WWII and rises at an ever-increasing and terrifying rate..
What does that mean, USSR-is-barack?
It means, you sanctimonious imbecile...that before many years, abortion will be the law of the land in most of the world and all you reich-wing bible-thumpers will have to switch to harassing and vilifying women who unpatriotically bring their pregnancies to term, burdening our economy and diminishing your, "quality of life"...
They will become the new "***** and prostitutes" for you to interfere with and to inexplicably feel morally superior to...but you'll need to modify your present slogan...
"SUPPORT PRO-LIFE OR I'LL KILL YOU" probably won't get it done any more...
Kudos to those newspapers who plan to run Trudeau's insights on the op-ed page...
There is nothing funny about this!