Franklin Graham on Abortion Reversal: ‘If True … an Answer to Many Years of Prayers’

Rev. Franklin Graham praised the leaked draft decision of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade on Monday evening, describing it as “an answer to may years of prayers” since the decision declaring abortion a right was made in 1973.

In a Facebook post, Graham wrote: “Praise God! The Supreme Court has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade according Politico, which received a supposedly leaked copy of the opinion draft. I don’t know if this report is true, but if it is, it’s an answer to many years of prayers.”

Graham was commenting on a Politico report that presented a draft opinion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which concerns a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

It is extremely rare for Supreme Court decisions to leak in advance, and court observers were shocked at the breach of decorum, which appeared to be calculated to put public pressure on the justices to change their minds before the decision.

The majority decision draft, written by Justice Samuel Alito, seemed to suggest that the Court would overturn Roe on a 5-4 basis, with Chief Justice John Roberts voting with the liberal minority. Alito not only took on the question of whether the right to abortion could be found in the Constitution even though the text says nothing about it, but also the question of stare decisis, which concerns the degree to which prior decisions of the Court are binding precedent and can rarely be overturned.

Anti-abortion activists, led by religious groups opposed to the practice, have mobilized against Roe for half a century, using both political activism and prayer. President Donald Trump promised to appoint justices who would vote to overturn Roe.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.