One cannot love the unborn if one does not love the born

"He who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen" (First Letter of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian; 1 John 4:20).

By the same principle, he who does not love the sick born person whom he has seen, cannot love the unborn fetus whom he has not seen. This is clear from what St. John the Apostle has written.

And what does that love consist of? What does love for the sick consist of? It's clear from the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) that it consists not in preaching to them, but in providing care for them. For love is shown "not in words or talk" by "in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18).

The point is that he who does not believe adequate, quality health care should be provided to all born people, for the preservation of their health and life, will not be taken seriously, and will not be believed, when he professes to be concerned for the welfare and lives of the unborn.

For how can a person sincerely love the unborn whom he has not seen, when he fails to manifest love, concern, and care for the born whom he has seen?

We who want people to listen and to take us seriously when we speak of the sanctity of life and when we express our belief that the lives of the unborn are precious and should be preserved, need to show that we are sincere, by vigorously advocating that full, quality healthcare be available to all people, regardless of their ability to pay. Otherwise our purported concern for the unborn will not have the ring of truth.

And that will have consequences not only for the unborn, but for even more important things: our Christian faith itself will also be mocked as insincere.

If we wish to give people a reason to take our message of Christ and his Cross seriously by showing concern for the lives of the unborn, we are destined to fail, and our message to be rejected, if we do not, at the same time, speak out about the need to preserve the health and lives of the born by providing adequate and quality health care for all, particularly at a time when this issue is being discussed and debated in our society.