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Lena Dunham has issued a public apology for recently remarking on her podcast that she’s never had an abortion but wishes she had. In a lengthy statement posted to Instagram Tuesday night alongside an image of the word “choice,” Dunham said she hopes her “distasteful joke” doesn’t detract from her own and other women’s efforts to protect reproductive rights. “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,” she wrote. “I’m so proud of the medley of voices in the episode. I truly hope a distasteful joke on my part won’t diminish the amazing work of all the women who participated.”
In her Instagram message, she noted:
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.
I’m guessing she doesn’t know that the very phrase “mea culpa” comes from a Catholic prayer, the Confiteor.
I suppose it’s good that she realizes what she said was “distasteful” (or, perhaps, she just realizes it was bad PR that drew an avalanche of criticism on social media.) If nothing else, it should be a reminder to her, and to so many others, that a growing number of people on all sides of the political spectrum don’t see abortion is something good or desirable.
There’s not much more to say, except: pray for her.
And today we celebrate...
