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Abortion comic

Author Matthew Lickona, whose first work was titled “Swimming With Scapulars: True Confessions of a Young Catholic,” is playing up the horrifying nature of abortion in a new comic book series in hopes of provoking dialogue about the procedure.

The protagonist in “Alphonse: Untimely Ripp’d” is an aborted fetus who survives the procedure and then sets out to extract revenge against his mother.

Mr. Lickona acknowledges, “It’s something of an outlandish premise,” but he sees the unborn child as comparable to the murderous Misfit in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”

The pictures in the mostly black-and-white comic are not for the faint of heart. Alphonse resembles a stark drawing of a Chuckie doll, with vacant eyes. The opening scenes take place in an abortion clinic, where the aborted fetus says, “Surprise, doctor,” before escaping.

Mr. Lickona describes “Alphonse” as “drama tinged with fantasy and the grotesque” and says the reaction from the pro-life community has been supportive although hesitant.

“People who are pro-life are pleased to see a fetus presented as a person — and more than that, a character. But it’s not like he’s lovable or innocent — the ordeal of crisis pregnancy has taken a toll on him, and he is both wounded and enraged,” Mr. Lickona said. “That has thrown some people off.”

The first of eight planned issues, “Alphonse: Untimely Ripp’d” is available on indyplanet.com for $2.99. Profits from the first issue will be used to produce the other seven issues.

Planned Parenthood

An abortion provider in Spokane, Wash., has been ordered by state officials to pay back more than $629,000 it overbilled Medicaid for condoms, contraceptives, doctors’ fees and other services.

The Department of Social and Health Services conducted an audit of Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest and found that $629,142.88 in excess payments were made to the organization because of errors in billing and record keeping.

The audit found the Planned Parenthood affiliate had dispensed contraceptives without prescriptions or other required documentation, billed Medicaid for face-to-face doctor consultations when patients were only picking up contraceptives, and committed accounting errors.

State law requires that Planned Parenthood bill Medicaid “at cost” for oral contraceptives and condoms, but auditors found that condoms were marked up improperly in all 13 condom bills they reviewed.

Auditors discovered that Medicare was billed 25 cents each on several occasions for condoms that the clinic acquired for 7 cents.

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