Girls creator and actress Lena Dunham has penned a column for Vogue in which she declares her support for a woman's right to reproductive choice and credits her mother for passing on the idea that the freedom to do what you want is "not a privilege, but a right".

Dunham's mother is the renowned artist and photographer Laurie Simmons. A lot of Simmons' work comes from a feminist perspective and Dunham describes her as "part of a generation of female artists who have challenged the art world to see them as peers, as players in what had long been a man’s game before they stepped on the field. "

Dunham says that her mother educated her that being pregnant did not necessarily mean having a child. "She also taught me that when it came to pregnancy, I had choices," she says. "This is all to say that I didn’t so much discover my passion for reproductive-justice issues as inherit it."

The Girls star has worked alongside the non-profit charity Planned Parenthood for the past three years, going topless in an Instagram pic last year for the "Women Are Watching" campaign, an initiative urging women to vote in the midterm elections.

In her column she discusses her pride at being affiliated with the organisation. "I have been so impressed, enlightened, and moved by everything they have brought to the table for nearly a century: choice, of course, but also a deep knowledge of all areas of women’s health and family planning. I am proud to be the daughter of a supporter — and to have grown into a supporter on my own terms."