She Launched “The Daily Show.” Now She’s Fighting Red State Abortion Bans.

A woman stands outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization in Jackson, Mississippi, moments after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022.Rogelio V. Solis/AP

For abortion rights advocate Lizz Winstead, her work has never felt more urgent. But her path to advocacy was a curvy one. She started out as a comedian, first as a stand-up and eventually as the co-creator of The Daily Show, which redefined television by deftly combining comedy and politics. 

“I kept getting increasingly unnerved and also frustrated that I was just shelling people with information, even though it was funny, and not giving them a way to fight back,” Winstead says.

Today, Winstead produces the Feminist Buzzkills podcast and is founder of Abortion Access Front. Again, she’s weaving together politics and comedy to educate people about abortion laws and provide resources on independent abortion providers. But this time, she’s also giving them the tools to fight.

“I wanted to combine the effectiveness of using humor to expose hypocrisy and bad actors and then combine that with a call to action,” Winstead says. 

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