By Dave Andrusko

Lena Dunham

For the moment, let’s assume that actress Lena Dunham was actually apologizing Tuesday for a remark that was stupid even by her standards: that she had “hadn’t had an abortion but wish I had.” That tasteless remark stirred some blowback, so Dunham turned to Instagram to mend fences with her audience for the criticism that followed her riff on Dunham’s Women of the Hour podcast.

It’s a fairly lengthy statement, but the gist is that the creator of Girls was “My bad, but don’t worry I remain a pro-abortion warrior.”

Her post began, “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. 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.”

So what was the context of the original inane remark? Dunham had been whining about the “stigma” associated with having an abortion.

“So many people I love – my mother, my best friends – have had to have abortions for all kinds of reasons,” Dunham said. “I feel so proud of them for their bravery, for their self-knowledge, and it was a really important moment for me then to realize I had internalized some of what society was throwing at us and I had to put it in the garbage.”

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

Dunham’s Instagram “apology” began with an excuse, followed by the assurance that while her messaging was faulty, the message was not, and culminated in a rousing call to arms.

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. My only goal is to increase awareness and decrease stigma.

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. My life is and always will be devoted to reproductive justice and freedom. You know how in some households you curse and have to put money in a jar? Well in mine, if you mess up your pro-choice messaging you have to give a sizable donation to abortion funds in New York, Texas and Ohio. I look forward to fighting with you all for the next four years and beyond.

In other words, she’d stepped into it, but don’t worry Dunham will be back, bigger and badder than ever, checkbook in hand.