As Lena Dunham Walks-Back Abortion Comments, MLK Niece Says Women Regret Abortions

Television writer and actress Lena Dunham, a pro-choice activist, created controversy when she said she wishes she had an abortion.  Later, she walked-back those remarks. Dunham initially made the comments on a podcast while recalling an encounter with a woman who asked Dunham to recount her own personal abortion story.  

"Now I can say that I still haven't had an abortion, but I wish I had," Dunham said. Critics accused Dunham of taking a calloused, uninformed stance on abortion, saying it's not something anyone should "wish" for. 

Later, in an Instagram post  accompanying an image of the word "Choice," Dunham indicated she was only kidding, referring to her comments as a "distateful joke."  She went on to write, "My words were spoken from a sort of "delusional girl" persona I often inhabit, a girl who careens between wisdom and ignorance." 

Pro-life activist Alveda King says many women who've had abortions eventually come to wish they'd never had one.  King, niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., told CBN News she deeply regrets having her abortions.  

She says many people who have had abortions are in denial about the various types of pain abortion causes, but says eventually they realize it.  She said people who have had abortions can not escape the guilt and the particularly deep, dark grief that is specific to a parent who has lost a child. 

Click above to watch Alveda King's comments about abortion.

"It's very difficult for a parent to get over abortion," she said. "I say parent, because women and the baby in the womb are highly affected by the abortion.  The baby loses its life. The mother experiences trauma to the spirit, soul and body. A woman can suppress that. It can almost seem like it didn't mean anything, and then one day it just all comes forward."

She said men have similar experiences.  "And a father is also impacted by it in the spirit and the soul. And fathers regret lost fatherhood and mothers regret lost motherhood. Because regardless, once a woman is pregnant, she's a mother. Once she is pregnant, he's a father. And so if the baby is aborted, this is still a life."

However, there is hope, according to King. She says the way a person can appropriately deal with the guilt and pain associated with abortion is through Jesus Christ. "The most important lesson to learn is there is forgiveness, but you have to ask for it, and you can be healed," she said.

King also addressed what she called the deception of the abortion industry, which markets itself as women's "healthcare." King says in reality, it peddles "deathcare."  She says African-Americans, who make up just 13% of the American population, yet undergo 30% of all abortions, are being tricked.

"Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, America's largest abortion provider, said that, 'colored people are like weeds.  They need to be exterminated.  We don't want the word to get out.' So they came up with a plan," King continued, "And they changed the name of the Birth Control League to Planned Parenthood and went straight into the African-American communities and said, 'We want to help your community.  Let us offer you free birth control, easy access to abortions.' And so the African-American community, believing sincerely that we were receiving help, we received death care instead of healthcare."

Like Dunham, many Hollywood A-listers tout a pro-choice stance  such as Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Banks and Melissa Gilbert.  However, there are still some outspoken pro-life advocates in the entertainment industry such as Patricia Heaton, Celine Dion, Jordin Sparks and Elizabeth Hasselbeck.