Jesse and Ashley Ridgway Don’t Regret Aborting Their Baby. They’d Do It Again

Admittedly, I don’t understand “influencers.” So, I went to various AI sources and this explanation seems to be as good as any:

Influencers are people who have built a significant following on social media platforms and use that audience to shape opinions, trends, and purchasing decisions.

Claude adds

People tend to trust influencers more than traditional ads because they feel like a peer recommendation rather than a sales pitch.

And the Big Shots have millions and millions of followers. The main You Tube channel for Jesse Ridgway (McJuggerNuggets) has amassed over 4.3 million subscribers and—get this—racked up more than 2.3 billion total views. And that doesn’t even count his followers on Instagram and “X.” According to PEOPLE magazine, Ridgway is a “content creator, who shares finance/tech videos, family-related vlogs, and more on his YouTube channel.’

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Most of our readers have already heard the tragic news that on April 26, Jesse and his wife Ashley announced to their ocean of followers that they were going to have a baby and then a little over a week later posted online: “This week, my wife and I made the very difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy due to Trisomy 21… The choice was not made lightly.”

[“He described the whole thing as extremely traumatic for the two of them,” Tim O’Brien observed. “No comment from the child, but I’m sure if it could speak, it would have agreed that the experience has been very traumatic for all three of them.”

Here’s some background, courtesy of Pooja Salhotram writing for the New York Times

The Ridgways first learned about the diagnosis through what was supposed to be a gender reveal celebration, which they recorded and posted on social media. Mr. Ridgway’s brother was entrusted with the test results, which disclose not only the sex, but also the possibility of Down syndrome.

Looking at the results, the brother is visibly uneasy and quietly tells Mr. Ridgway about the unexpected news. The gender reveal proceeds anyway.

As he should be, Jesse is outraged at what he says are death threats. But watching him he seems to be most indignant that millions of people should be upset when there are so many abortions each and every year! As he told Kayla Grant of PEOPLE magazine

What shocked me most of all was that this story has become mainstream news… A couple’s abortion is suddenly newsworthy in 2026…?” he explained. “There are over 1,000,000 abortions every single year for a myriad of reasons, this is happening on a DAILY BASIS and is the most common outcome for Trisomy 21, yet this one blows up and people are surprised…? The reason this blew up is quite simple: IT’S BECAUSE NOBODY TALKS ABOUT IT.”

And besides, three-quarters of all babies prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. Indeed, the Ridgways offered as the primary explanation for their decision that these children will have many medical problems, including a higher risk of congenital heart problems. [One mom described how the medical community has “‘catastrophized’ Down syndrome, making it difficult for new parents to accept that their child may have the genetic condition.”]

And the Ridgways have had no second thoughts. “The fallout from the post has been painful, the Ridgways said,” according to Salhotram,  “but if they had the chance, they would do it again.

“I don’t regret how we went about everything,” Ms. Ridgway, 31, said. “We are open and honest with our audience because we have a close and personal relationship with a lot of them.”

It is a constant refrain across accounts that thanks to the Ridways, we are now “talking” about aborting children with Down syndrome. Lucky us.

Jesse Ridgway added

“To those who have been affected by this or are confronted with a similar situation in the future, we have your back and please feel free to reach out. I’m sure this will follow us awhile especially when we try for a kid again in the near future.”

Maybe I’d be more sympathetic if Jesse Ridgway hadn’t posted

“I’m glad my dad didn’t f***ing terminate me, but I’m normal.”

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He frequently writes Today’s News and Views — an online opinion column on pro-life issues.