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UPDATE: Lena Dunham has apologized for her comments on abortion yesterday, via Instagram:

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. 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. 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. I would never, ever intentionally trivialize the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy. 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. I know plenty of people will never like a thing that leaves my lips, mea culpas or no, but this apology is for the women who have placed their trust in me. You mean everything to me. My life is and always will be devoted to reproductive justice and freedom. You know how in some households you curse and have to put money in a jar? Well in mine, if you mess up your pro-choice messaging you have to give a sizable donation to abortion funds (https://abortionfunds.org/need-abortion) in New York, Texas and Ohio 💰I look forward to fighting with you all for the next four years and beyond.
A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Dec 20, 2016 at 6:39pm PST

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Lena Dunham has come under criticism for statements she made on the latest episode of her podcast -- namely what many perceived to be a glib wish to have had an abortion in order to more thoroughly inform her activism.


"Something I've thought about a lot is the fact that there is stigma around abortion," Dunham said on "Women of the Hour." "I always thought that I myself didn't stigmatize abortion. I'm an abortion rights activist, it's a huge part of who I am."

She then proceeds to dive into an encounter she had at a Planned Parenthood in Texas several years ago, in which a young girl asked her to share her story of abortion for a project -- an occurrence that jarred Dunham and made her realize she herself had internalized this societal stigma even though, "I myself had never had an abortion."

Dunham then went on to explain that even though she is someone "who cares as much as anybody about a woman's right to choose," she still "felt it was important that people know I was unblemished in this department." A statement which she ended with the strange and unsettling comment, "Now I can say that I still haven't had an abortion, but I wish I had."

Listen to her comment for yourself, starting at around the 13-minute mark.

[h/t Fox]

photo by John Salangsang/BFA.com

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