Billy Graham and Abortion

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 22, 2009

Today is the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the ground-breaking Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Throughout his career Billy Graham has taken a stand against abortion, but what is perhaps worth noting is his gentle and loving stance.

While his son Franklin Graham makes headlines for calling abortion murder, Billy Graham has a gentler, more understanding tone. There are four separate My Answer columns in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s spiritual help section addressing abortion, and each one, though firm, still drips with grace.

Billy Graham has also criticized the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, saying they have gone too far and hurt their own cause. “The tactics ought to be prayer and discussion,” Graham told TIME magazine. In 1993 he took heat from anti-abortion leaders for participating in the inauguration of Bill Clinton. Graham defended the action by pointing out that presidents need God’s guidance and that the Bible commands us to pray for them.

But despite his grace-filled stance, Billy Graham still clearly condemns abortion and has called it murder himself. In his 1992 book Storm Warning he said, “We can demonstrate God’s love, but we must never think that we can solve one moral crisis by condoning another, especially the crime of murder, for unrestrained abortion is nothing less than that.”

Fully aware of the decisiveness of the issue, Graham has in many ways sought a middle ground where it’s possible to be against abortion but still show love and grace to those facing such hard decisions. In the 1970s Graham, along with C. Everett Koop and Francis Schaeffer, was instrumental in founding Care Net, a network of crisis pregnancy centers.

Finally, there is the testimony of Billy’s third daughter, Ruth Graham. In a 2005 interview with Beliefnet about her book, Legacy of Love: Things I Learned from my Mother, she spoke about her daughter’s unplanned pregnancies and referred to mistakes in the lives of the Graham children, including herself: “So we’ve experienced a lot as Grahams. We’re not perfect.”

She went on to applaud the mothers willing to choose adoption over abortion:

“No life is a mistake. God has plans for each life. And there are no illegitimate children—there are only illegitimate acts. And I believe that birth mothers are very courageous. They are living in a society that tells them they don’t have to carry to life. It’s legal in this country to have abortion, but they choose life. They lay down their lives; literally, their reputations, their figures, their school careers, sometimes their families kick them out. And the Lord said that there’s no greater love but that a man lay down his life for his friends, and these young women lay down their lives for their children. And I applaud them.”

Her words and her life experiences exemplify the kind of grace Billy Graham has shown to the issue of abortion. He has stood firmly against it, but no so firmly that there isn’t room for grace and love.