Last November, Cecily Strong skipped the “Weekend Update” to offers one of the most inspiring desk sections In Saturday night live history as a clown feels he has no choice but to speak out about abortion at the age of 23 after Texas passed a 6-week abortion ban.
A year later, on the eve of the midterm elections, and Roe v. Glancing in the rearview mirror, Strong returned to himself.
This time, veteran SNL the cast plays “Tammy the Trucker, who promises she’s here to talk about gas prices and definitely not abortion.”
“All I am here to talk about is gas even though the Supreme Court sent Roe v. Wade to the big stop in the sky,” she told Colin Jost. “50 years of precedent, beep, beep!”
As the clip continues, Strong slowly lets go of her character to open up about how the assault on abortion rights has dogged her.
“I’m just trying to get through this moment, okay?” she explained. “Gas prices are up and families are hurting, but that won’t magically go away no matter who you vote for. We are in a global recession fueled by corporate greed and war, honking, shutdown, disruption. But what will continue to disappear is safe access to abortion. It’s not really magic because they told us that’s what they’re going to do, and they’ve been doing it.”
“I don’t want to talk about abortion on live TV or Peacock, whatever that counts,” Strong joked. “But these are scary times, OK? Because they don’t want just access to health care. They also want to criminalize it. Too bad truckers are warning each other to delete our menstrual cycle apps. I just want to know which week to put on my bad underwear, but I can’t stand in case some Texas asshole thinks my period is criminal proof! “
At the end of the segment, Strong tells Jost, “The truth is, I’ve been feeling pretty helpless for the past year and it’s hard to know what to say to make other truckers feel better.”
“So this is one thing I can say,” she continued. “There is one thing that transport mothers can do to fight for maternal transport freedom to make their own health care decisions, and that is vote. And I hope people will vote. Because remember, we all love someone who has had an abortion — I mean, driving a truck, beep beep! “
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