Social Media Pregnancies – Where to Draw the Line?

A recent headline on feministing and something that, as a father, make me shake my head in disbelief. I cite:

The news article’s focus is mainly how more women feel comfortable documenting their pregnancies through social media as a way to share with extended family and friends and swap advice with other moms and moms-to-be. According to a 2010 study by software maker AVG, more than 30 percent of American mothers have posted their sonograms online.

[...]

A trained medical professional in a position of authority and power views the pregnant woman through ultrasound technology, interprets the ultrasound image and confers meaning on it regarding the fetus’ size, health and sex. The couple then shares the image with family and friends in a social ritual that allows them to reinforce the fetus’ individuality and personhood. The woman simply becomes a vessel for carrying and delivering a healthy fetus to term.

Thankfully there was some common sense in the comments:

Abortion on demand is, in my opinion, a right that all women should have the abililty to exercise should they, themselves, not anyone else, deem it the appropriate solution for their life, body, mind, etc.

However, trying to devalue the unborn child is not going to make a pro-choice argument more worthy or more valid. Trying to prove that a woman is somehow dehumanized through pregnancy is just as weak.

For a pregnant woman to assign her unborn child a “personhood” is totally normal. If the reinforcing of the notion that an unborn child has the potential to become a person (or already is) is so offensive to the pro-choice rally that one must seek to eradicate the “ritual” then it is my opinion that this author’s personal rationalization for the legalization and accessibility to abortion on demand is weak and delusional.

I found this article to be much like the elite feminism I see in the academy, devoid of reality.