'A distasteful joke': Lena Dunham apologizes for abortion comment
Unfiltered, outspoken actress, writer apologizes on Instagram
Lena Dunham has apologized for saying she wished she had an abortion.
Dunham made the comment on last week's episode of her Women Of The Hour podcast while talking about a self-realization.
She said that even though she speaks against stigmatizing abortion, she found herself saying adamantly that she had never had one when she was asked to be part of a project involving women discussing their abortions.
"I wanted to make it really clear to her that as much as I was going out and fighting for other women's options, I myself had never had an abortion," the writer and actress stated.
"And I realized then that even I was carrying within myself stigma around this issue. Even I, the woman who cares as much as anybody about a woman's right to choose, felt it was important that people know that I was unblemished in this department."
She continued: "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. Now I can say that I still haven't had an abortion, but I wish I had."
Her comments drew rampant criticism online and, on Tuesday, the Girls star apologized on Instagram for what she called "a distasteful joke."
"My words were spoken from a sort of 'delusional girl' persona I often inhabit, a girl who careens between wisdom and ignorance (that's what my TV show is too) and it didn't translate. That's my fault," she wrote.
Dunham said she "would never, ever intentionally trivialize the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy."