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Cartooning For Life

An interview with Union-Tribune Cartoonist Steve Breen

BY ERNIE GRIMM

On March 30, local pro-lifers were delighted by cartoonist Steve Breen's offering on the editorial page of the Union-Tribune. Not only was the drawing explicitly pro-life, but battle-weary clinic protesters could relate to the picketing woman in the cartoon being berated by an angry woman who screams, "Keep your laws off my body!" When the picketer responds that there's another person involved in the abortion equation -- the unborn child -- the pro-abortion woman, after a pause, yells back, "Keep your logic out of my mind!"

Breen, 34, has "cartooned," as he puts it, for the Union-Tribune for two-and-a-half years. Before that, he worked for a small paper in New Jersey where, in 1998, he won a Pulitzer Prize. He lives with his wife and two children -- and another on the way -- in Encinitas where he attends Saint John's parish. He recently answered some questions by e-mail.

What in your mind or heart lead to the March 30th cartoon?

The cartoon was pegged to the recent news stories involving partial birth abortion -- the legality of the ban being challenged -- and "Laci's Law."

What is the source of your pro-life views?

As Roman Catholics we are taught to recognize the sanctity of human life, but we're also called to protect it. That means standing up and speaking your mind when you have the opportunity. Through the platform of the editorial page, I have the opportunity. But I do like to think that I'd be pro-life even if I wasn't Catholic. Wrong is wrong.

What was the reaction to your cartoon from the Union-Tribune readership?

I really didn't get any negative letters or calls on the cartoon. We got a call from one guy who's kind of a regular. He used to call and complain about the last cartoonist who worked here. Without sounding too prideful, there was little ground for pro-aborts to stand on in terms of refuting my message. I believe that deep down, most people know abortion involves the extermination of a human life. To cover the guilt caused by their actions, they've brainwashed themselves with all the "choice" and "privacy" nonsense. The pro-abortion mission is to use celebrities, the media, legal hogwash et cetera to change the subject away from the issue of life. They don't want the logic of life filling their minds.

Do you express support for the culture of life in cartoons on other topics.

I'm pro-life all the way. I cartoon against abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, stem cell research. I'd cartoon against birth control if they'd let me. As a journalist, I believe I have a real calling to help those without a voice. I need to stick up for the "little guy" whether it's a political prisoner rotting in a Chinese prison or the retiree who had her life savings obliterated by a crooked CEO. And part of that mission is doing what I can to help the ultimate voiceless victims of injustice, the unborn. The culture of life is a thread that runs through many of my cartoons, but it's often implicit. As far as abortion goes, I draw one, maybe two explicitly pro-life cartoons every year, and maybe three or four implicit ones a year.

Pro-lifers assume that it's hard to be openly pro-life and work in the mainstream media. Has that been your experience?

I'm totally in the minority as a pro-life journalist. I can feel the hostility in the newsroom the week after I do a pro-life cartoon. My pro-death colleagues see us as either religious fanatics or simpletons...or both. A female reporter recently told me she liked a cartoon (on a subject unrelated to abortion) and I told her she could have the original. She said, "I'd be happy to have any of your originals ... as long as it wasn't one of your scary pro-life cartoons!" Hey, at least she used the term "pro-life"!

Tell me about the Pulitzer. Were any pro-life cartoons in the prize-winning package?

I won the Pulitzer in 1998 for 20 cartoons I drew in 1997. I had two "pro-life" cartoons in the batch ... none really on abortion but pro-life. I do think that entering pro-life cartoons (on abortion) in contests hurts your chances because the judges tend to be liberal.

How did you get into this line of work?

I started drawing Far Side-type cartoons for my school paper, the UC Riverside Highlander.

Tell me a bit about your family and faith.

I'm the second oldest of eight kids. My mom was a homemaker and my dad worked for the FBI. I was raised in Huntington Beach, Orange County. In the '70s, I went to a wishy-washy Catholic school, Saints Simon and Jude in Huntington Beach (now militantly liberal.) Then in high school I went to public school and my family switched to a nice conservative parish, St. Mary's By the Sea in downtown Huntington Beach. Faith played a huge role in our home -- Sunday night family rosaries, the whole thing. It was my mother's doing. She's one of those humble and quiet women on the outside but inside is on fire with faith. She knew her primary goal was to get us all to heaven.

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