Fort Lauderdale, Fla., cartoonist Stephanie McMillan created the cartoon in response to controversial comments that Napoli made on a national TV news program. McMillan put the cartoon up for bids on eBay and pledged to donate the proceeds to Planned Parenthood in the region and to the Oglala Sioux Tribe to help develop a women’s clinic there. There were 72 bids during the auction, which ended at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The first bid was 99 cents; the last, $2,201.

“That’s the winning bid,” McMillan said Wednesday. “It’s very gratifying that one of my cartoons could be used to assist the ongoing fight to keep women’s reproductive freedom alive. I’m impressed with the generosity of all the people who bid on this auction and in particular with the person who won it.”

Another cartoon involving Napoli and the South Dakota abortion issue was up for sale on eBay on Wednesday. By late afternoon, bidding for that cartoon, created by Bob Newland of Hermosa, had reached $242.50.

Proceeds from the Newland cartoon also would go to the Oglala tribe for the women’s clinic, according eBay.

Napoli said Wednesday that the first cartoon, which carried his home and work phone numbers, had produced a flood of obscene telephone calls since it began circulating over the Internet. He wouldn’t estimate how many calls he had received but said most were from other states and filled with profanity.

“The cartoon generated a huge amount of filth, intolerable filth,” Napoli said. “Ninety-nine percent of the calls I got were just filth. I bet I didn’t talk to 20 or 25 people I could talk to. The rest were screaming obscenities before I could hang up.”

A story about the cartoon and auction in Wednesday’s Journal, however, produced a string of supportive calls from area residents, he said.

“The backlash has been very positive. I’ve had an overwhelming number of good phone calls today from people who were very upset that my phone number was in there,” Napoli said. “The Internet generated filth. The Journal generated positive calls. People around here are good people. They don’t talk like that.”

Based on his calls Wednesday, Napoli concluded that the cartoon “might have backfired. So I’m feeling pretty good about it.”

McMillan was feeling good about the cartoon, too, and about its growing notoriety in recent days in support of the abortion-rights cause. She said she had contacted the high bidder Wednesday and was waiting for a response.

McMillan took notice of South Dakota, and eventually of Napoli, after the state Legislature approved and Gov. Mike Rounds signed HB1215, which would ban abortions except to save a pregnant woman’s life. Opponents of HB1215 are gathering petition signatures to refer the law to a public vote and might also sue.

McMillan is donating half of the auction proceeds to Planned Parenthood to help fight the law and provide women’s reproductive care. She wants the Oglala Tribe to use its share of the money to help tribal President Cecelia Fire Thunder with her plan to develop a clinic offering abortions and other reproductive health services on the reservation. Because of the tribe’s sovereign status, the abortion law wouldn’t apply in most situations on the reservation.

Fire Thunder said she was grateful to McMillan for the donation and for the cartoon.

“I think it’s a very good cartoon,” 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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