The Des Moines Register is one of many newspapers across the country that declined to run this week’s “Doonesbury” comic strips, which mock Republican legislative efforts to shame and intimidate women seeking abortions.

You can find Garry Trudeau’s comic strips at Doonesbury.com. In today’s installment, a legislator who sponsored the Texas sonogram law calls a woman seeking an abortion a “slut” because she has visited the center previously for contraceptive services. The Register is running repeats of a series mocking young people for spending time together engrossed in their own smart phones rather than interacting with each other.

Editor Rick Green posted a note to readers on the paper’s website and on Monday’s opinion page. Excerpt:

Because I believe the series oversteps the boundaries of good taste, The Register will not be publishing it. Instead, we will offer our readers a replacement series of “Doonesbury” strips.

It’s important for you to know I am a “Doonesbury” fan. I sharply disagree with some of his positions occasionally, but I have long appreciated Trudeau’s sarcasm, creativity and cartooning skills that provide unique commentary on the American political scene. Few remember that he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for his strip.

But this week’s topic and Trudeau’s portrayal of it is not a laughing matter. The graphic imagery does not match the mission of The Register’s family-focused Iowa Life comics section.

Trudeau’s language used to support his opinions of the Texas law, I believe, is quite graphic. Our readers are my priority, and I fear this would be offensive to many of them.

As our avid comic readers know, Doonesbury is wedged beneath “Family Circus” and “Dennis the Menace” and above “Blondie.” That is not the place to explore such an objectionable topic.

Disappointing. I’d give Green more credit if he’d opted to run this week’s Doonesbury comics on the opinion page instead. The series is very much on-topic, as ultrasound laws and other abortion restrictions have advanced in many states. Green doesn’t want the Register associated with hard-hitting satire on this subject. But no matter how far he bends over backwards not to offend, the kind of people Trudeau mocks this week will still accuse the Des Moines Register of “liberal bias” whenever it suits them.

On a related note, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland’s semi-annual Book Sale to benefit education programs is being held later than usual this spring: April 19 through 23 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds 4H building.