Pregnant Cecily Strong Reiterates the Importance of the ‘SNL’ ‘Goober the Clown’ Abortion Sketch
Today, abortion will effectively be on the ballot in all 50 states as America ponders electing an administration that will likely attempt to institute a nation-wide abortion ban — who wants a balloon animal??
Saturday Night Live alumna Cecily Strong doesn’t want her brief performance as “that SNL abortion clown” to define her comedy legacy. Strong also believes that it’s nobody’s business besides her own how, on the day before her 23rd birthday, she, herself, terminated a pregnancy that was so early that her doctor jokingly asked her if she got pregnant on the way over to the clinic. However, that normalizing and hilarious line is still one of her favorite jokes of all time, and, in 2024, as a pregnant mother at the age of 40, Strong is revisiting that classic bit along with the Weekend Update segment that inspired scores of women to reach out to her with their own experiences regarding abortion rights.
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Over the weekend, Strong posted a pregnancy announcement on Instagram along with an emotional reflection on the legacy of the 2021 SNL sketch in which she forced America to face the realities of abortion during the final days of Roe v. Wade:
“A couple years ago I did a piece on SNL as Goober the Clown who had an abortion the day before her 23rd birthday,” Strong began in her post. “I’m happy to report that same clown is now very happily pregnant from IVF at 40.”
“It’s kind of insane and scary to disclose all of this. But for me, it’s much scarier to think about what could happen after Tuesday’s election,” Strong continued. “I currently live in a state where I will be able to receive all the healthcare I may possibly need. But we won’t be safe anywhere in the U.S. if there is national ban like the one promised by Project 2025. The Supreme Court has already decided it’s okay to let some of us die depending on our geography and the current Republican nominee brags about being responsible for that Supreme Court decision,” the comedy star wrote, possibly referencing the national news story about Texas women dying from miscarriage complications after doctors denied them care under the state's strict abortion ban.
“I’ve been in lots of waiting rooms with other women throughout my life,” wrote Strong, adding of the SNL sketch, “I had family and strangers reach out after Goober and tell me of their own experiences — some of whom had never shared with anyone before. I’ve seen so many women in these waiting rooms going through their own struggles and journeys with their reproductive health and family planning and bodily autonomy.”
“Some look relieved. Some look excited. Some look fearful. Some look like they are carrying the deep sadness of prior losses and the even deeper hope of some good news finally,” Strong continued. “But the one thing nobody in those rooms has ever looked is unable to make her own decisions.”
“Let’s all please vote to protect and uplift and support all of us that share or have shared those waiting rooms together,” Strong concluded. “And for the future ones like the little miss thing I’m really really hopeful I’ll get to meet next spring.”
