Lena Dunham Is Sorry for Saying She Wishes She Had an Abortion

Lena Dunham on Tuesday apologized for saying she wished she had an abortion, calling the gaffe she made on her podcast a “distasteful joke” that “didn’t translate.”

In an Instagram post she penned after drawing intense backlash for her remarks, the Girls star directly addressed women she might have offended when she said, “Now I can say that I still haven’t had an abortion, but I wish I had.”

Dunham said her goal was to increase awareness and decrease the stigma that surrounds abortions. “My words were spoken from a sort of ‘delusional girl’ persona I often inhabit… and it didn’t translate,” Dunham wrote. “That’s my fault. I would never, ever intentionally trivialize the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy.” Dunham added that she hopes her “distasteful joke” didn’t take away from the work of the women she interviewed for the latest episode of her podcast, Women of the Hour, which focused on women’s reproductive rights.

The actor and director also suggested that she would give a “sizeable donation” to abortion rights groups in New York, Texas and Ohio.