Two interesting comments to Doonesbury cartoons

[TrogL]

If you go to the Doonesbury main site, there's a section called Blowback, allowing user comments. It's a mixed bag, most favourable, a few "I'm cancelling my newspaper subscription because of you" sort, but two stuck out for me.

SHOCKED
Dr. Priscilla O'Connell | Franklin Square, NY | March 13, 2012

I am shocked that you would equate an ultrasound to rape. Mothers need to have full knowledge of what they are contemplating doing when they go for an abortion. They are taking a human life. If they could see their baby they would probably not abort. Some will choose not to look and that is their right.

A doctor (medical??), but completely missing the point.

DISTURBING
Jill Lee Williams | Owensboro, KY | March 13, 2012

I read your cartoon which suggests that Old White Men are in no way able to make laws concerning women. I personally find it disturbing that men such as yourself want to keep women dumb and in the dark. A woman having an abortion deserves to have all the facts! For some reason men like yourself seem quite uneducated when it comes to women's health, but boy do you love a soap box. As for making fun of the men that pass the laws so women can have all the facts, it was Americans that voted them into their positions. I'm hoping you'll take some time to help women, instead of trying to keep us uneducated about our own bodies.

Again, completely missing the point. If a woman wants the facts, all she has to do is ask. Planned Parenthood is a good source of information, but Mitt Romney wants to get rid of it.

[obxhead]

1. Women can get the facts in many ways. These laws are NOT about facts.

They are about exactly what Doonesbury depicted, shame.

[Blue_Tires]

2. Those clowns (if real) probably never even read Doonesbury

and didn't care about the strip until Faux or the local radio shill cranked up the outrage machine...

"Dr. Priscilla O'Connell"?? Troll harder... Everybody who isn't an astroturfer knows it's Priscilla O'Connell, M.D. or D.D.S. or Ph.D; or more specifically, just name their specialization...The only people who call themselves Dr. something in print are fakes or the "Dr." is a nickname...

[MH1]

5. Thank you. And there's a big difference between a transvaginal ultrasound and 'an ultrasound' ...

and an actual medical doctor - female especially - would KNOW that.

[Blue_Tires]

4. fwiw, one of the standard rules of writing astroturf

is to pull a real name and location from the phonebook or internet...make it a medium-size city or smaller to lessen the risk of that person being widely known...RWers had been getting away with it for years until they started getting sloppy and real people came forward to deny the comments (most notably with veterans pimping the GWOT)...

I'm not saying that isn't the real O'Connell; just some food for thought...

[The Doctor.]

6. Those should be the subject of his next cartoon.

He could introduce a new character based on those comments.

[LadyHawkAZ]

7. ALL the facts, Ms. Williams?

Do those laws insist that doctors inform women about how much more life-threatening a term pregnancy is? Do they mandate showing photos of prolapsed organs, hemorrhaging, vaginal tears, stretch marks, or any of the other joys of childbirth? Do they have to read a preprinted screed from the state on the hazards of gestational diabetes and eclampsia? Is there mandatory counseling on the effects of parenthood, the mental health effects and the possible health issues later in life (real or imagined) that may result?

ALL the facts, Ms. Williams?