The Saturday, March 17, Gazette opinion page will run the “Doonesbury” comics for March 13-17 that deal with the Texas abortion law sonogram requirements. Accompanying the strips will be a column by The Gazette’s Jennifer Hemmingsen and a guest opinion, with an expectation of letters to the editor to follow

UPDATE: A guest column was not procured for this particular opinion page. A column by Hemmingsen critical of the Texas law runs with the strips.

The Gazette ran the first installment of the series on Monday, March 12, but not the rest. The explanation for that was described in my previous blog post.

Good community conversation should focus on the right conversation. For some, that conversation is whether these particular “Doonesbury” strips should be published on the comics page, opinion page or at all. For many, it is whether or not abortion is anathema to the sanctity of life.

For others, however, the larger conversation is about whether or not women should be forced into a medical procedure that a doctor would not perform unless government ordered it.

The opinion page is a good spot for this conversation.

Some interesting stories have been written during the week about this week’s “Doonesbury” comics. Here are a few links:

Lists of newspapers who pulled Doonesbury this week
Garry Trudeau: ‘Doonesbury’ Abortion Furor ‘Good for Business’; Wall Street Journal
If ‘Doonesbury’ skipped abortion law controversy, it would be ‘comedy  malpractice,’ says cartoonist Gary Trudeau
What’s all the fuss about?  Doonesbury and the American Family
Doonesbury’ creator Garry Trudeau discusses divisive strips about abortion