Leslie Jones On Abortion Bans: 'You Can't Make Me Small or Put Me in a Box'

By Emily Alford  |  May 19, 2019 | 5:00pm
Entertainment
Leslie Jones On Abortion Bans: 'You Can't Make Me Small or Put Me in a Box'

Last night was Saturday Night Live’s season finale, and Leslie Jones appeared on the last “Weekend Update” of the season in a full handmaid’s outfit to speak about Alabama’s near-total abortion ban, along with similar bans in other states.

The segment begins with Jones smiling big and joking that her eggs are “dusty as hell,” but she’ll give this whole handmaid thing “a shot.” The tone shifts with host Colin Jost attempts to placate her by assuring, “I don’t think society is quite there yet.”

Jones rips off the red robe to reveal a tee shirt that says “Mine,” with an arrow pointing to her reproductive organs. “You would think that, but this is how it starts,” she tells Jost.

She goes on to present a side-by-side picture of the 25 Alabama senators who voted for the ban. “This looks like the casting call for a Lipitor commercial,” she says of row after row of white men. Jones also doesn’t let Alabama’s Serena Joy of a female governor off the hook or even Jost, who offers the same kind of tentative, ultimately useless, support the same allies who insist we’re not “quite there yet” often give regarding laws that don’t affect them.

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“You tell ‘em, Leslie,” Jost says.

“Shut up. You flat white privilege latte,” she answers.

At the end of her funny, rallying, and ultimately very moving speech, Jones seems to speak directly to the people who demand a say in what goes on inside her body:

“You can’t tell me what to do with my body. You can’t make me small or put me in a box. I’m six feet tall and 233 pounds. Ain’t no box big enough to hold me.”

It was a moment that we needed, and I hope next season SNL will give Leslie “Dracarys” Jones more opportunity to go scorched earth on these assholes.

 
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