Napoli-lampooning cartoon offered at auction on eBay

Rapid City Journal

By Kevin Woster, Journal Staff Writer

State Sen. Bill Napoli, an anti-abortion Republican from Rapid City, might end up making an indirect cash donation to the abortion-rights cause because of his controversial comments in support of a near-total ban on abortions in South Dakota.

Florida-based cartoonist Stephanie McMillan is holding an eBay auction of the cartoon she created after Napoli made national news and attracted a flurry of angry telephone calls with his comments about abortion last month on “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.” Late Tuesday evening, the high bid for the cartoon was $2,051, an amount that amazed McMillan.

“I was grateful when the bids reached a few hundred dollars,” McMillan said by e-mail Monday night. “And I’m astonished, and very encouraged, that it’s gone so high.”

Bidding for the cartoon will end at 2 p.m. today. Then, McMillan will split the 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 Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

McMillan also wants Napoli to understand the point of her cartoon and why it received such wide attention nationwide. The cartoon spread quickly through the Internet, prompting hundreds of positive responses and three or four that were negative, she said.

“The whole way it went viral was surprising to me,” she said, referring to its sudden Internet spread. “I draw three cartoons a week, for years, and that’s never occurred before. This one happened to tap into a lot of simmering anger people are feeling about Napoli’s offensive comments on rape and a widespread desire to fight back against the idea that a person like him seeks to control women’s lives.”

Napoli maintains that he was simply trying to explain how rape victims in certain circumstances might qualify for an abortion under the provisions of HB1215. The bill, which was approved overwhelmingly by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Mike Rounds, would allow abortion only when necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman. 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.

That infuriated many viewers and others who read reports of the comments. Napoli said in a subsequent interview with the Journal that the example was only one possible exemption, not the only one. He also said he didn’t believe a “simple rape” was reason enough for “killing the baby” through abortion.

Napoli began receiving angry telephone calls, mostly from other states. Some were civil, but many anonymous calls were laced with angry profanities, he said.

“I am absolutely shocked by the vehemence of these pro-choice people,” he said. “I was absolutely shocked at what people said and what I heard.”

McMillan added to those calls by running Napoli’s home and work numbers with her cartoon, as well as with information on the cartoon related to the eBay auction. She never tried to call the numbers herself.

“I haven’t wanted to talk to him,” she said.

Plenty of others have, however. And those conversations convinced Napoli that the lack of rape and incest exemptions is not the core of opposition to HB1215. He said most callers angrily rejected any abortion prohibition, regardless of whether it had exceptions.

“Every person said, ‘absolutely no way.’ They demand abortion for whatever reason — on demand, birth control, the whole nine yards,” he said. “Rape and incest is nothing but a smokescreen to attack this bill. The issue is to allow abortion for any reason.”

McMillan said the real issue, pointed out in her cartoon, is that neither Bill Napoli nor government bodies including the South Dakota Legislature have the right to decide whether a woman can terminate her pregnancy.

After McMillan drew the cartoon, she read about Fire Thunder’s plan to open a clinic offering abortion and other reproductive health services on the reservation, which is sovereign land where state law generally does not apply. That is why she pledged proceeds from the cartoon sale to the Oglala tribe along with Planned Parenthood.

Kate Looby of Sioux Falls, director of Planned Parenthood of South Dakota, said her organization appreciated the money and the gesture by McMillan.

“It’s obvious that people all around the country are watching what’s going on in South Dakota. There are a lot of people around the country who have seen that cartoon. It’s funny, in a sad sort of way,” Looby said. “I hope the women of South Dakota can benefit from something, in an odd way, that Bill Napoli has said.”

Napoli said he wasn’t quite sure how to respond to the cartoon and its wide circulation.

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

As for the cartoon itself, Napoli said he was more puzzled than amused.

“I guess I don’t have much of a sense of humor. I didn’t get it at first, but then I had some women call and say they could decide what salad dressing to use,” he said. “I said I couldn’t understand the point. And they said, ‘Geez, Bill Napoli is telling the women of this country what to do with their bodies.’ And in reality, Bill Napoli never said that. I have not told women what to do with their bodies, at any point in time.”

McMillion thinks he did exactly that with his vote for HB1215 and with his subsequent statements supporting the ban.

“Bill Napoli clearly believes that a woman should be forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term,” she said. “She is not allowed to decide for herself, even if she is a victim of rape or incest, even at the risk of her health. He and his fellow politicians have decided that the government should control what she will do with her body, regardless of her feelings or well-being.”

McMillan said her first Napoli cartoon might not be her last.

“It sure wouldn’t surprise me if Napoli does something else that begs for criticism,” she said.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com

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Copyright © 2006 The Rapid City Journal Rapid City, SD

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