Lena Dunham: ‘I Still Haven’t Had an Abortion, but I Wish I Had’

Anytime Lena Dunham is trending online these days, it’s typically for some headline-making political comment. However, the Girls creator seems to have taken it too far for some people this time around.

On her podcast, Women of the Hour, the 30-year-old actress tackled the topic of abortion, saying that although she hasn’t had one, she wished she had. Dunham began by talking about how she was raised by her mother to be pro-choice.

“From an early age, she taught my younger sibling and me to say ‘anti-choice’ instead of ‘pro-life’ because she wanted to make sure that we knew that everyone is pro-life,” Dunham said. “Some people are anti-choice.”

Despite her pro-choice view, Dunham realized that even she unknowingly carried with her a stigma around the topic.

“One day, when I was visiting a Planned Parenthood in Texas a few years ago, a young girl walked up to me and asked me if I’d like to be a part of her project in which women share their stories of abortions,” she recalled. “I sort of jumped. ‘I haven’t had an abortion,’ I told her. 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. 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 I was unblemished in this department.”

She added, “Now I can say that I still haven’t had an abortion, but I wish I had.”

That remark did not sit well with many listeners.

Dunham later apologized for her controversial comment.