Garry Trudeau Q&A on 'Doonesbury' abortion strips

Only once in the long history of "Doonesbury" has Garry Trudeau's syndicate ever intensely objected to one of his story arcs. It was 1985, and the subject was abortion.

This week, amid heated debate about pre-termination ultrasound and sonogram bills in Virginia and Texas, Trudeau has been tackling the politically sensitive issue of abortion head-on.

"To ignore it," Trudeau said in an interview, "would have been comedy malpractice." The result is that many newspaper editors have been weighing whether to run this week's "Doonesbury," which has about 1,400 clients.

The Oregonian in Portland is among the papers that won't be running the series. In a note to readers Friday, the editors said Trudeau "went over the line of good taste and humor in penning a series on abortion using graphic language and images inappropriate for a comics page." The paper is directing readers online if they want to read the strip.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, by contrast, plans to run the strips, saying, "Garry Trudeau's métier is political satire; if we choose to carry 'Doonesbury,' we can't yank the strip every time it deals with a highly charged issue."

[More than 50 newspapers, including Newsday, have chosen not to print the strips, while at least 15 others have opted to omit specific days or move "Doonesbury" to their opinion pages for the whole week, according to the Daily Cartoonist website.]

The Washington Post spoke with Trudeau about the current strip and the 1985 strips, which were yanked by Trudeau and Universal Press Syndicate, now Universal UClick, "Doonesbury's" syndicate.

They had supported me through so much for so long, I felt obliged to go with their call.

Such was not the case this week. There was no dispute over contents, just some discussion over whether to prepare a substitute week for editors who requested one (which we did).

I chose the topic of compulsory sonograms because it was in the news and because of its relevance to the broader battle over women's health currently being waged in several states. For some reason, the GOP has chosen 2012 to re-litigate reproductive freedom, an issue that was resolved decades ago. Why [Rick] Santorum, [Rush] Limbaugh et al. thought this would be a good time to declare war on half the electorate, I cannot say. But to ignore it would have been comedy malpractice.

The World Health Organization defines rape as "physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration -- even if slight -- of the vulva or anus, using a penis, other body parts or an object." You tell me the difference.

Plus, I think I get a bit of a pass simply because I've been around so long. After all this time, editors know pretty much what they're going to get with the strip.