Back to the drawing board on abortion.

Philadelphia

Signe Wilkinson, pen in hand, is in the front lines of the battle over abortion.

Wilkinson is a Philadelphia Daily News political cartoonist who last year was the first woman ever to win a Pulitzer prize for editorial cartooning. Last September, she published a collection of her cartoons entitled Abortion Cartoons on Demand. ("No parental notification, waiting period, or counseling required for purchase.")

Wilkinson says she collected her cartoons and published them in book format to send out a message during the Presidential campaign. "And see, it worked," she says. "Obviously we won because of the book! "

Political influence aside, Wilkinson says it was important to put together the cartoons "to give women an affirming and cohesive view" of their fight to keep abortion safe and legal.

"Political cartoons can be a quick, visible reminder that no matter how complicated the questions get, you can put the bottom line in black and white," she says.

Accordingly, all of her work approaches the issue from the belief that abortion rights must be upheld. But that doesn't mean she doesn't wrestle with the more intricate controversies. "I'm an advocate," she says, "but not a blind advocate."

In fact, the most thought-provoking of Wilkinson's cartoons raise questions about abortion and other hot topics. "You don't have to be a conservative to feel it's not a good idea for thirteen-year-olds to be having sex," she says. "I think we've got to look at the situation and do more than dish out condoms in school or give kids abortions when they get pregnant. There's a moral component to behavior that doesn't get enough attention."

Wilkinson has similar concerns about surrogate motherhood and genetic testing. "It depends too much on science and the fashion of the day," she says. "I wonder where we'll stop, which genetic |deformities' will become acceptable in society and which we won't allow."

These cartoons challenge progressive and liberal readers, which makes the book more than just a kick in the pants to the anti-abortion side.

Despite the change in Administrations, Wilkinson is keenly aware that the battle for abortion rights is far from won. Increased harassment of women outside abortion clinics and the recent fatal shooting of a doctor who performed abortions in Florida make that clear.

Such restrictions as twenty-four-hour waiting periods, spousal notification, and other forms of "thinly veiled harassment" are the new battleground, she says.

And that means plenty of new subject matter for her pen: "I think I'm going to be dealing with this for a long time to come."