--- ---  # Lena Dunham Is Sorry for Saying She Wishes She Had an Abortion  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 21, 2016 12:54 PM UTC  Lena Dunham speaks onstage during the 'Girls' panel discussion at the HBO portion of the 2014 Winter Television Critics Association tour at the Langham Hotel on Jan. 9, 2014 in Pasadena, California. Lena Dunham speaks onstage during the 'Girls' panel discussion at the HBO portion of the 2014 Winter Television Critics Association tour at the Langham Hotel on Jan. 9, 2014 in Pasadena, California.Frederick M. Brown—Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 21, 2016 12:54 PM UTC Lena Dunham on Tuesday apologized for [saying she wished she had an abortion](http://motto.time.com/4608364/lena-dunham-wish-abortion-comments/), calling the gaffe she made on her podcast a “distasteful joke” that “didn’t translate.” In an [Instagram post](https://www.instagram.com/p/BOQ0L8vl9gs/?taken-by=lenadunham) 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_](https://soundcloud.com/womenofthehour/choice-season-2-episode-5), 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. Lena Dunham Is Sorry for Saying She Wishes She Had Abortion ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4608914/lena-dunham-abortion-apology/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4608914/lena-dunham-abortion-apology/"},"headline":"Lena Dunham Is Sorry for Saying She Wishes She Had an Abortion","datePublished":"2016-12-21T12:54:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:04:11.584Z","description":"\"I would never, ever intentionally trivialize the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy\"","url":"https://time.com/4608914/lena-dunham-abortion-apology/","keywords":["motto","celebrities","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13e725544e24bfee/6988b3a486f68e75dc6e301b/lena-dunham-abortion.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13e725544e24bfee/6988b3a486f68e75dc6e301b/lena-dunham-abortion.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2014 Winter TCA Tour - Day 1","caption":"Lena Dunham speaks onstage during the 'Girls' panel discussion at the HBO portion of the 2014 Winter Television Critics Association tour at the Langham Hotel on Jan. 9, 2014 in Pasadena, California.","creditText":"Frederick M. Brown—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4608914/lena-dunham-abortion-apology/","name":"Lena Dunham Is Sorry for Saying She Wishes She Had an Abortion"}}]}] ```