Lena Dunham wrote a lengthy apology following her comments about abortion on her Women of the Hour podcast. In an episode about reproductive choice, Dunham said she wished she had gotten an abortion, which caused a wave of backlash.
“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 in an Instagram post. “I truly hope a distasteful joke on my part won’t diminish the amazing work of all the women who participated.”
Dunham claimed that a “delusional girl” character, much like the one she embodies on HBO’s Girls, inspired her comments. In this instance, Dunham had been reflecting on a visit she had made to a Planned Parenthood in Texas on her podcast, realized that she had internalized her own stigma against abortion by needing to let people know she “was unblemished in this department.” She later added, “I can say that I still haven’t had an abortion, but I wish I had.”
Dunham asserts that she never meant to trivialize or make a mockery of “the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy.” Before linking out to where people can donate to abortion funds, she adds how important the issue of reproductive choice is to her.
“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.”
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