THE 1983 "SQUEAL RULE"

I did this cartoon for the Greenville News in 1983.  At that time, Congressional Republicans were demanding that any underage female who wanted government-funded contraception be required to obtain her parents' permission.  If she failed to show evidence of permission, the parents were to be called and informed that their daughter had requested contraceptives.

Opponents called it the "the Squeal Rule."

There are so many horrible abuses that I--as a former teacher in the upper reaches of the South Carolina foothills--know that young girls endure in quite dangerous family situations, that I could not believe that so-called educated, sophisticated lawmakers would not have thought of this.

Instead of doing the cartoon I wanted to do, I did this one--which I thought was too lame.
Nevertheless, I was called into my editor's office and angrily berated for making only one of the girls black.

All the girls I had come across in that situation were white, but whoever was in charge at the newspaper didn't ask me about that--and I was too upset to argue.  The cartoon had already run anyway.

Soooo, here we go again...