Actress Lena Dunham has apologised on social media after saying in a podcast that she had never had an abortion but wishes she had.

The creator and star of comedy TV series Girls said she did not intend to "trivialise" terminating a pregnancy when she made the remarks during her Women of the Hour podcast on Dec 15, she said.

Dunham, 30, had recalled an incident at a Planned Parenthood meeting in Texas where women shared stories of abortion and where she was asked to share a story about her own abortion.

She told listeners that she had never gone through the procedure, before adding: "But I wish I had."

"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," she said during the podcast.

It was then, Dunham said, she realised "Even I - the woman who cares as much as anybody about a woman's right to choose - felt it was important that people know I was unblemished in this department.

She added, "Now I can say that I still haven't had an abortion, but I wish I had."

Her remarks prompted a wave of criticism online, with one pro-life charity saying Dunham was treating abortions "like getting your appendix removed".

Dunham explained in an Instagram post alongside a picture with the word "choice" that her "latest podcast episode was meant to tell a multifaceted story about reproductive choice in America."

"My words were spoken from a sort of "delusional girl" persona I often inhabit, a girl who careens between wisdom and ignorance... and it didn't translate. That's my fault. I would never, ever intentionally trivialise the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy," she said.

Dunham added that her only goal is to "increase awareness and decrease stigma" and that she takes "reproductive choice in America more seriously than I take literally anything else."

She ended her post by pleading with her fans to donate to abortion funds.