This week, a string of newspapers across the country—including the Norman Transcript—made the decision to pull Garry Trudeau’s iconic comic strip Doonesbury after the author decided to create an entire set of strips addressing the recent slew of anti-abortion legislation up for consideration across the country.
“Fans of the Doonesbury comic strip know we elected to withhold some of this week’s daily strip from our comics page,” the Editorial board of the Transcript said. “The Monday and Tuesday panels were published. But the content—descriptions and depictions of proposed pre-abortion screening requirements in Texas—became exceedingly graphic towards the week’s end. We’ve heard from readers on the issue and have decided to post the entire week’s Doonesbury strips online. Watch here for new strips to post through the end of the week. Doonesbury returns to the daily pages next week.”
I’ve read these strips, and I’ve educated myself about the policy. It’s my contention that the Doonesbury set in question is not the offender here—it’s the legislation proposing absolutely unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound procedures to be done on every potential abortion candidate. It’s the 24-hour wait period anyone wishing to get an abortion must go through. It’s the self-righteous legislators assuming carte blanche control over the bodies and wills of the women they represent.
Abortion has become an intensely hot-button topic over the course of the last year. In Oklahoma, the state legislature introduced several bills for consideration, including a “symbolic personhood” act and a joint house resolution banning the use of certain forms of birth control because of their “abortifacient” potential—nevermind that some women use those alternate forms, like the copper IUD, because all other forms are potentially fatal to them.
To me, this rash of legislation, and related events like conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh calling Columbia Law student Sandra Fluke a slut on-air simply for calling for the ability to choose her own birth control, stinks of a deep suspicion and even fear of women that needs to be addressed. Comics like Doonesbury, which has been a critical voice of policy decisions and political atmospheres from Nixon to Obama, are an effective way of addressing said fear. Newspapers that hinder those voices, even if that just means keeping a week of Doonesbury out of print, are not only not doing their jobs, but are actually running counter to their journalistic mission.