A single panel from an abortion-related 'Doonesbury' comic strip, by Garry Trudeau. Photo: Reuters
A GARRY Trudeau Doonesbury cartoon strip lampooning Texas legislation on abortion has been pulled by some US newspapers. Several papers are declining to use the strip at all, and others are switching it from the comic section to editorial pages.
The strip deals with a law introduced in Texas and other states requiring a woman seeking an abortion to have a sonogram, which shows an image of a foetus and other details, in an attempt to make her reconsider.
A woman is shown at a Texas clinic being told to take a seat in ''the shaming room''. A state legislator asks if she has been there before and, when she says she came to get contraceptives, he replies: ''Do your parents know you're a slut?''
Later, she says she doesn't want an intrusive vaginal examination but a nurse says: ''The male Republicans who run Texas require that all abortion seekers be examined with a 10-inch shaming wand.'' The nurse adds: ''By the authority invested in me by the GOP base, I thee rape.''
Abortion, contraception and other social issues have been highlighted by the Republican presidential candidates.
Trudeau, who uses his cartoons for social commentary, said he would have been surprised if there had not been a pushback. ''It's just an occupational risk,'' he said. About 1400 newspapers take Doonesbury. The Guardian ran the strip as normal yesterday.
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