doonesbury

Newspapers across the country are refusing to run this week's Doonesbury comic strips, including the  Missoulian.Instead they are running an alternate series. Other newspapers have moved the strip from their comic pages to their opinion pages.

The reason? This week's strip is about Texas's absurd and misogynistic sonogram law requiring women getting an abortion to get an ultrasound.

Let me get this straight. Outrage over a comic that exposes the truth about this demeaning law, but not the law itself?

The comic's creator, Garry Trudeau, has been criticized for describing the transvaginal ultrasound required in early pregnancy as "rape."

"Texas's HB-15 isn't hard to explain: The bill says that in order for a woman to obtain a perfectly legal medical procedure, she is first compelled by law to endure a vaginal probe with a hard, plastic 10-inch wand," he explains. "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."

So it's offensive to call rape rape?

What's offensive is the idea that legislators think they should have power over women's bodies.