CHARLOTTE, October 12, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – The Rev. Dr. Billy Graham is no longer able to hold the massive rallies that once stirred the nation’s soul. But the famed evangelist, now 97 years old and suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, still finds a way to reach out to the nation with the issues dearest to him through his syndicated newspaper column, “My Answer.”
On Wednesday, he dedicated his column to comforting a grieving mother after she had an abortion.
A post-abortive mother writes that, while it’s possible that “some women can go through an abortion and never feel guilty…I feel terrible over what I did.”
“Every time I drive by a school playground I’m almost consumed with grief,” she wrote. “Will I ever get over this?”
Rev. Graham dealt with both the issue and its aftermath.
He called post-abortion depression and grief “one of abortion’s unseen (and unacknowledged) consequences.” A string of academic studies have confirmed a link between abortion, depression, and suicide.
Although he said that what his writer did was morally wrong, Rev. Graham reassured her that God “has not rejected you or abandoned you. He loves you, just as He loved the child that was growing in your womb (and is now, I am confident, safely in His presence).”
He encouraged the grieving mother to “accept God’s gift of forgiveness today by turning to Christ and by faith inviting Him to come into your life,” then “ask Him to help you reach out to others whose hearts and minds have been scarred, as yours has been.”
However, grief over a past abortion is not the only possible reaction Rev. Graham has encountered.
“Tragically, however, sometimes a far different consequence takes place: spiritual and emotional insensitivity to what happened,” he warned.
At least two leaders of pro-abortion organizations have publicly demonstrated those attributes. The 2016 Democratic National Convention, which nominated Hillary Clinton, gave NARAL President Ilyse Hogue a rousing ovation when she told delegates that she had an abortion. Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards, a close personal friend of Clinton’s, has said that making up her mind to have an abortion “wasn’t a difficult decision.”
Meanwhile, the abortion industry has moved to decrease “abortion stigma,” sometimes by such exotic means as “aborting” a papaya. The group Stop Patriarchy, a front for the Revolutionary Communist Party, popularized the slogan, “Abortion on demand and without apology.”
Yet women from across the political spectrum, including the far-Left, continue to regret and mourn their abortions.
Groups like Rachel’s Vineyard and Project Rachel offer post-abortion counseling, and Silent No More Awareness allows post-abortive women to discuss their experiences.
But Rev. Graham says true healing comes when we “believe that [Jesus’] promise of forgiveness is true and that someday you will go to be with Him forever.”