Senator is mocked in cartoon on eBay

Disgusted voter pays $2,201 for art

Argus Leader

Staff & Wire Reports

A cartoon lampooning state Sen. Bill Napoli, R-Rapid City, was just too amusing to pass up on eBay for one woman opposed to South Dakota's abortion ban.

Sharon Ludwick Warner of Rapid City was the winning bidder on the cartoon drawn by a Florida artist that sold for $2,201 on Wednesday.

The proceeds from the cartoon sale were earmarked for abortion-rights causes.

"We'll probably frame it," Ludwick Warner said of the cartoon. "There's all kinds of possibilities." Stephanie McMillan of Florida drew the cartoon after Napoli drew attention with his comments about abortion on "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer."

McMillan said this week she will split the final high bid between Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota and the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

She wants the tribe to use the money to help tribal President Cecelia Fire Thunder with her plan to develop a reproductive health care clinic, which would offer abortions and other services on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

HB1215, signed into law and set to take effect July 1, would ban nearly all abortions in South Dakota. It would allow abortion only when necessary to save the life of the woman.

A group is circulating petitions to refer it to a public vote in November.

Napoli maintains that on the show, he was simply trying to explain how rape victims in certain circumstances might qualify for an abortion under the provisions of HB1215.

The lack of exemptions for rape and incest victims has been a prominent target for critics of the bill.

When asked about that issue on the NewsHour, Napoli said abortion might still be allowed in certain rape situations.

He used as an example a religious girl who wanted to remain a virgin until she was married but was "brutally raped, savaged" and then became pregnant.

The girl might be so traumatized by carrying the baby to term that it could threaten her life, he said.

The cartoon depicts a woman who, when asked her choice of salad dressing, says she must check with Napoli, implying the senator thinks she can't make decisions on her own. The cartoon lists his work and home phone numbers.

Ludwick Warner, who said she is not in Napoli's voting district, said the senator's comments were some of "many infuriating statements he's made over the years."

"This statement in particular was infuriating, but then when I saw this cartoon and saw it was available, I said, 'This is hilarious; we have to have it,' " she said.

Ludwick Warner said she has been working to collect signatures for the referendum petition, and she and her husband had already planned to give money to help the issue come to a public vote. "And we will be contributing some more," she said.

Napoli, who has received numerous calls since the cartoons and drawings have spread across the Internet, said this week he wasn't quite sure how to respond.

"Some woman did a cartoon, and some people think it's funny, and that's great," he said. "Whatever trips their trigger."

home