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Lena Dunham Apologizes For Wishing She Had An Abortion
By Tyler O'Neil December 21, 2016
Late Tuesday night, actress Lena Dunham apologized on social media for saying she wished she had an abortion. She clarified that the comments, which seemed to "trivialize the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy," were made more or less facetiously.
Dunham, a writer and producer of HBO's show "Girls," caused a stir last week by announcing, "I still haven't had an abortion, but I wish I had." Her words received backlash among both pro-lifers and supporters of abortion.
The actress declared her desire to have had an abortion in the context of explaining the stigma around terminating a pregnancy. "I always thought that I myself didn't stigmatize abortion," she said, but she caught herself feeling superior to post-abortive women. "I wanted to make it really clear ... that as much as I was going out and fighting for other women's options, I myself had never had an abortion."
Her comments came at the end of a long, personal explanation of her own internal feelings on the issue, and how the "harmful" stigma against abortion was ingrained, even in her.
Nevertheless, on Tuesday night, she called her comments "a distasteful joke on my part."
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.
Dunham was not apologizing to everyone, however. "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," she explained. The actress was not backing down as an advocate for abortion — far from it.
"My life is and always will be devoted to reproductive justice and freedom," Dunham declared. So, for penance, she explained that she would be giving "a sizable donation to abortion funds ... in New York, Texas and Ohio."
There are many problems with this "apology," but the most glaring one is that she never really apologized. Dunham did seem to admit that she "messed up" her "pro-choice messaging," but her entire message was focused on explaining away her statements as part of a "persona."
Yes, Dunham plays a somewhat crazy person — but her little "I wish I had an abortion" speech gave every hint of being personal and honest. It fit well with the rest of her episode, where she denounced the term "pro-life," had a guest warn against crisis pregnancy centers, and featured another guest giving "just a light, cute talk about abortion."
https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2016/12/21/lena-dunham-apologizes-for-wishing-she-had-an-abortion/