Some Newspapers Pulling Doonesbury Abortion Strip

Garry Trudeau goes after Texas for requiring ultrasound
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 10, 2012 10:57 AM CST
Some Newspapers Pulling Doonesbury Abortion Strip
A 2008 file photo of cartoonist Gary B. Trudeau.   (AP Photo/Douglas Healey, File)

Doonesbury is making waves again, with several newspapers around the country planning to skip the comic strip next week or move it to the editorial pages. The reason? Garry Trudeau lampoons a Texas law requiring women to get an ultrasound before abortion, and he pulls few punches. "By the authority invested in me by the GOP base, I thee rape," says a doctor in one panel, according to a transcript at JimRomenesko.com. (The blog is keeping a running tab of newspapers bowing out.)

"We felt the content was too much for many of the readers of our family friendly comic page," says an editor at the Kansas City Star, one of the papers moving the strip temporarily to the op-ed pages, reports AP. Others, including the Oregonian, won't run the strip at all in the print edition. Trudeau is unapologetic, reports Reuters: "This is happening in statehouses across the country," he says in an email. "It's lunacy, and lunacy, of course, is in my wheelhouse." (More Doonesbury stories.)

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