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Lena Dunham Apologizes for 'Distasteful' Comment Wishing She Had an Abortion

Lena Dunham / Instagram
December 21, 2016

Actress Lena Dunham apologized Tuesday night for saying on the most recent episode of her podcast that she wishes she had an abortion to gain more credibility among abortion activists.

"My latest podcast episode was meant to tell a multifaceted story about reproductive choice in America, to explain the many reasons women do or don't choose to have children and what bodily autonomy really means," Dunham wrote on Instagram. "I'm so proud of the medley of voices in the episode. I truly hope a distasteful joke on my part won't diminish the amazing work of all the women who participated."

"I would never, ever intentionally trivialize the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy," the actress continued. "My only goal is to increase awareness and decrease stigma. I take reproductive choice in America more seriously than I take literally anything else, and therefore own full responsibility for any words I speak that don't convey this truth clearly."

Dunham had said on her podcast's latest episode, released last week, that she wished she had an abortion.

"Now I can say that I still haven’t had an abortion, but I wish I had," the outspoken liberal Hollywood actress said.

"So many people I love–my mother, my best friends–have had to have abortions for all kinds of reasons," Dunham said earlier in the podcast. "I feel so proud of them for their bravery, for their self-knowledge, and it was a really important moment for me then to realize I had internalized some of what society was throwing at us and I had to put it in the garbage."

Dunham's apology came a day after various media outlets picked up her abortion comment and she was hit with backlash that erupted on social media.

Published under: Abortion , Hollywood