Lena Dunham Is Sorry for Wishing She Had Abortion

Lena Dunham is apologizing to women who've had abortions after saying she wished she could count herself among that group. On a recent episode of her podcast, Dunham recalled visiting a Texas abortion clinic where she was asked to discuss the circumstances of her own abortion. "I myself had never had an abortion" and "felt it was important that people know that I was unblemished in this department," Dunham said, per Motto, adding she realized then that she had "internalized" society's stigma around abortion and "had to put it in the garbage." She added, "Now I can say that I still haven't had an abortion, but I wish I had"—a comment which did not go over well with women who've actually had the procedure.

Abortion is "unpleasant, time-consuming, and costly" and "a difficult decision for all women," writes Erin Gloria Ryan at the Daily Beast. Yet based on Dunham's comment, some would believe "pro-choice feminists spend their days praying … that they'll get accidentally impregnated so they can have one of those abortions the gals at the nail salon can't stop gabbing about." Dunham has since apologized for the "distasteful joke" on Instagram. "My words were spoken from a sort of 'delusional girl' persona I often inhabit, a girl who careens between wisdom and ignorance" and "didn't translate," she writes. "I would never, ever intentionally trivialize the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy." (Dunham recently apologized to an NFL star.)