Benedict Cumberbatch Supports Abortion Rights on 'SNL'

Benedict Cumberbatch stood up for reproductive rights on "SNL" Saturday night, tackling the issue head-on in the show's cold open and wearing a shirt that made his opinion clear at the close of the show.

In the opening, Cumberbatch, Andrew Dismukes and James Austin Johnson, played medieval men discussing their views on abortion, a criticism of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's reliance on a 13th-century concept in his leaked opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade should it be made official in June.

As the men talk, a litany of other beliefs from the time period are used to mock using the era as a moral guide. Laws against pointy shoes and hunting deer in the royal forest, the way the plague was allowed to run amok, and beliefs that people of color and women (often branded as witches) and left-handed children were lessers fueled the mile-a-minute satire.

Watch:

Cumberbatch, who was on hand to promote "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," wasn't done with the issue. When the show ended, he and several cast members — including Cecily Strong, Chris Redd, Kyle Mooney, Alex Moffat, Chloe Fineman and Mikey Day — wore "1973" T-shirts referencing the year Roe v. Wade made abortion rights the law of the land in the U.S.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has spoken out in anger over the leak of Alito's draft decision, vowing to investigate the source.