Abortion, revisited

It would’ve passed under my radar, save for a friend’s status update on Facebook on Thursday: “I am mourning the 43 million casualities of Roe v. Wade.” Indeed, Thursday marked the 36th year since the pro-abortion court decision. (I decline the use of the word “anniversary.”) 43 million lives ended. A single life ended is cause for morning; 43 million is cause for sackcloth and ashes.

What’s more, the toll is not limited to the number of hearts stopped by a single act of abortion. My mind lately has been not even on the lives of those children but rather on the social and personal damage done by those who advocate for a "woman's right" to abortion.

In the first place, I cannot understand the push for the so-called “rights” of minors to obtain abortions without parental consent or notification. Though most states have at least parental notification (if not consent) laws on the books, the elasticity of “undue burden” and our nation’s general moral elasticity will certainly allow minor abortion-on-demand before too long. How deeply ironic that states that would prohibit minors from legally having their ears pierced without parental consent, or being caught with alcohol even with parental consent would allow the same young woman they consider a child to undergo an invasive procedure without her parents even having the right to know about it. As a parent, I find this trampling of parents’ rights horrifying. Certainly, there are some situations in which a girl’s pregnancy is the result of incestual rape; clearly, such a child should have some recourse to the law rather than be forced to face an abusive father. Yet such cases assuredly represent the tiniest fraction of teens who seek abortion; for “the rest of us” parents who will or may some day deal with a teenage girl of reproductive age, the possibility of our teenage daughter undergoing an abortion without our knowing about it should be horrifying. Assuming that our child still lives under our roof and still receives support from us, we parents have the God-given right to know what is going on with our child, regardless of whether or not said child desires this. I believe that opinions contrary to this are not held in the interests of protecting women themselves, but in the interest of “women’s rights” and “abortion rights.”

Secondly, I cannot help but laugh (in a mirthless way, I admit) that one of society’s buzzwords these days is “Responsibility.” Responsibility! The irony of an abortion society speaking of responsibility slays me. How can a society teach that “Responsibility is a virtue” teach in the following breath that if one unintentionally becomes pregnant, the most “responsible” thing to do is to pretend that the mistake never happened and just do away with it? Responsibility, in my estimation, is taking a look at what one is doing (“I am having sex”), what the consequences might be (“I may become pregnant”), and then fully owning the choice and the possible consequences (“If I do become pregnant, I will not abort my child”). It brings to mind an article I read several months ago that discussed the possibility of a weight-loss pill that would let one eat as much as he wanted without the natural consequence of weight gain. My reaction to this possibility is revulsion: The decision one makes about what to put into his body needs to have real-world consequences. One needs to take, yes, responsibility for his food choices. Regarding abortion, I would argue that a society that allows and promotes abortion cannot possibly be one that truly believes in the “virtue” of responsibility, at least not enough to bother practicing it.

Lord have mercy.

Christmas, kind of, one month late

Well, it's that time of year. That time of year to be uploading Christmas pictures that are almost a month old. In that spirit: Merry Christmas, everybody!


The boys thought Christmas came early when they unloaded my mom's pantry. Bulk spices! Oh, boy! Manny smelled quite festive, actually, when he managed to open the cinnamon container and spread it all over himself and the floor.Manny loves danger. LOVES it. He's much more of a climber than Jonah ever was. At home, he climbs up on the full-size rocking chair in the boys' room; at Gangee and Pop-Pop's house, he had to make do with a child-size chair. He made it exciting by sitting backwards on it. Right after I snapped this picture, he tumbled over off the chair. (You can see my hand at the lower left, on its failed mission to catch him.) I should start taking bets on how long it will be before his first trip to the ER.

Auntie Angie worked hard to make Manny giggle. It worked.












Can you guess what Gabriel is doing in this picture? His hand is by his mouth; looks of disgust and disbelief reign on his mom's, brother's and son's face; Jonah is looking away in shame. Stumped? Gabriel is regaling everyone with Jonah's vomiting-at-the-family-Christmas-party tale. A story is always much more vivid when re-enactment accompanies it.

I like to think of this picture of Jonah as "The Eye of Sauron", but cuter, less sinister, and not ornamented by a ring of fire. Also accompanied by Toby the Old-Fashioned Tram Engine.

Here's my mom, hard at work in the kitchen, acting as if she's not interested in those bottles of wine. Note, I wrote, "acting as if."

Helper Elf and Pup, with Helper J busy at the side.

Manny also got plenty of love from Auntie Kara and Uncle Greg. The Moo is virtually irresistible. The detritus of gift-opening.

Here's Jonah with his own re-enactment. This is a trick that my dad often performed with my sister and I. Do you think Jonah liked it? Are you kidding me?

Hammy Manny

We call him Mr. Pig. Hammy in so many ways. (I especially like the "shy" look about 10 seconds in.)

Snow fun

Gabe was able to take a significant amount of time off of work over the past month, which was so very nice for me. He took Jonah out solo some, which allowed me to spend some extra time with Manny, and his being home during Manny's morning nap allowed me to take Jonah out for some fun in the snow. Jonah wasn't too excited about the snow last year -- in fact, I think that he wanted to get back inside now -- but he's had a lot more fun in the fluffy white this year.

This little outing took us over an hour. After poking along the sidewalk some, we stopped at the park. Jonah (sort of) made a snow angel
-- a snow angel without arms or legs, it's true, but I was impressed by the fact that he even laid down in the snow.

He had taken his mittens off once we arrived at the park, though I haven't been able to figure out why he did so. Here he sees the error of his ways and begs me to put them back on him.

Here you can see Jonah cleaning off the park. "Cleaning" consisted of standing on the concrete lip and pushing the snow off. As my husband put it the other day, Jonah is sort of a "strange little bird." A little snow owl, apparently.

Precocious quote of the day

Gabriel: Jonah, it's time to read a story before bed.
Jonah: No, Dada, I want to keep playing instead.
G: Jonah, it's fine if you keep playing, but then we won't be able to read a story before bed.
J: It's okay, Dad.
G: Are you sure? If you keep playing, no story.
J: It's okay, Dad. I had my chance.

"I had my chance"! I find this infinitely amusing. Those words are an echo straight from Mama: "Jonah, you had your chance to do X, but you chose to do Y instead." Jonah did, of course, suggest reading a story once playtime was over, but really didn't make a fuss before heading to bed. Apparently, he meant what he said and wasn't just delaying (Jonah is a master delayer.) *sigh* I'm away from my kids so seldom but always manage to feel that I miss the really good stuff. Oh, well. I had my chance.

These pictures of Manny playing with his birthday blocks are just too cute (a portion of their cuteness has to be due to that little vest, dontcha think?). He loves to imitate and picked up on block-stacking right away. What a little man!

Okay, I helped him build this tower. He's not quite this adept yet.

Foodstuffs

What better way to kick off 2009 than with pictures of the Sanchez kids stuffing their faces?

At the far right, Jonah digs into Manny's birthday cake.

Thanksgiving was a little traumatic for Manny. He loved the sweet potato biscuits but was definitely suffering from a lack of sleep.

Ah, the flannel shirt makes a return, under that bib.

Manny is actually quite adept with the spoon, though Jonah refuses to recognize this. Little brothers always need help, right?

Carrot cake!

Birthday cake!

Carb king. (That's bread spilling from his mouth and clutched in his little paws.)


*Sorry for the weird format and broken-up words. I'm not sure what happened and am choosing not to find out.