Culture YouTuber Jesse Ridgway and Wife Made ‘Difficult Decision to Terminate’ Pregnancy After Down Syndrome Diagnosis: 'Gut Punch' - The couple shared on their Instagram Stories that Jesse's wife Ashley got an abortion earlier this week

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Jesse Ridgway and his wife Ashley have ended their pregnancy and are explaining why.

In a series of posts on the YouTuber's Instagram Stories from Wednesday, June 3, Jesse, 33, said that they'd recently made the "difficult decision" to end Ashley's pregnancy after receiving a fetal Down syndrome diagnosis. Ashley later reposted the statement on her own Stories.

"This week, my wife and I made the very difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy due to Trisomy 21," wrote Jesse. Trisomy 21 is another name for Down syndrome. "The choice was not made lightly."

Jesse acknowledged that some of their fans might be "very disappointed" to hear this news and said the experience has been "extremely traumatic" for him and Ashley, 31, who terminated the pregnancy earlier this week.

"When I first confronted this news, I was shocked but optimistic," Jesse wrote. "If they're a little slow intellectually, then we'll make it work. I signed on to be a parent, come what may...but I just didn't fully understand what Down syndrome entailed."

He went on to list health risks that can be associated with Down syndrome, including heart defects, hearing challenges and delayed physical development.

"Down Syndrome isn't a 'blessing,' it is objectively s---ty from a health perspective," Jesse claimed. "I didn't realize just how rough it is for the child, let alone the family...more often than not, they would be fully dependent on others for the rest of their life."

The influencer said he spoke with friends, family, doctors and genetic counselors and claimed that 90% of women terminate their pregnancy after learning the baby has Down syndrome. (According to Healthline, that figure in the U.S. is 67%.)

"This was WAY higher than I expected, I thought it would be lower given I hear so many say they kept or would keep the baby," continued Jesse. "I believe that's because most terminations happen privately [and] it feels shameful. A lot of judgement being cast."

He directly addressed his fans who have autism or Down syndrome and have weighed in on their decision, saying that they "appreciate" them.

"You matter a lot and we're glad you're here," he said. "I commend you and your families for having the strength and courage to push forward."

"As for us, we made a difficult decision that we believe in the long-run will be beneficial for our family. Thankfully, we had a choice," Jesse said. "It will take a little time to move on, but we are excited to try again in the future and hopefully have a better outcome."

The couple, who are based in New Jersey, first announced they were expecting in March. In a joint Instagram post, the two sat together and held up a series of sonogram images.

"BABY RIDGWAY - COMING FALL 2026," they wrote in their caption.

 

[Orkeosaurus]

i'd rather have a downie than a sociopath autist son whos going to end up a tranny.

 

[gernig]

I can't be the only one who's horrified by the sheer number of people who actively want more downies and mentally disabled children to be born to live a life of suffering, right? While many of these people want to point the finger and call the unfortunate parents of these children as being selfish, The people pushing for these unfit for life disabled children to be born a prisoner of their own body are the real selfish bastards.

Instead of letting the extremely disabled receive an merciful and painless death, these people would rather them suffer excruciating pain for years or decades all so they can live a meaningless life as a net negative to society and their families. They internally dehumanize down syndrome people and other mentally retards into being their own personal human pet that they can care for and enjoy like they would a dog, cat, or house plant. They seem to exibit behaviors of Munchausen by proxy: they desperately want to attempt to care for these permanently disabled children for their own fufilment, even if it means that they're just prolonging their pain and suffering for zero reason or benefit to the child itself.

Every time I see someone showing off their extremely disabled DS child on social media I see the splitting image of the young British boy Archie slowly and painfully decomposing on the life support systems as his sadistic mother refuses to agnowlege the fact that her son won't be coming back, and it just painfully sickens me

 

[quaawaa]

Seeing all the groyper self described wignats and trads who want to RETVRN to ancient Rome having a meltdown over somebody aborting a defective downie fetus is truly a sight to behold.

Pic related:


Source (Archive)

 

[the printer is outo fink]

They don't see the meltdowns, the shit smearing, the hitting, have to deal with hollering at all hours, get groped by them, pay for their care. Everyone with such a strong stance against it should be forced to spend a weekend alone with a severely disabled adult. I've done it for a family friend a few times and it is absolute hell.

Or one of the things that very rarely gets talked about but is a very serious issue, is that kids with these disabilities often go through the same hormonal changes as everyone else in puberty but with no potential for a normal outlet for that, and limited to nonexistent impulse control.

Decades ago, part of my work involved helping reasonably capable mentally disabled young adults do 'work' in the community, and sexual fixation was a recurring problem. At best, they'd 'fall in love' with one of the people they spent time working with. At worst there was definitely behaviour that in any other circumstances was sexual harassment and could potentially have become very dangerous. I've heard some horror stories from people who have much more experience working with people with these issues. Both in terms of disabled people being abused but also abusing others, without any real awareness that they are doing that.

Most people really have no idea at all of the realities for someone with the mental capabilities of a toddler and the body of an adult. It's not just awful or hellish, it's downright dangerous at times. The very small amount of time that I've spent working just on the sidelines of that has led me to the conclusion that while I do think it's very sad, abortion, as early as possible, is absolutely the lesser of two evils.

 

[The Nothingness]

Who tf is Jesse Ridgeway?

The only Ridgeway I care about is Larry Ridgeway the host of "Hate House"

His YouTube name is McJuggerNuggets.

 

[behavioral swamp thang]

Knowingly having a disabled child is barely pro-life. Yeah, you're bringing in more life but you're destroying like five more in the process. The parents, their siblings (check out r/glasschildren to read about what happens to the siblings of the disabled, it's horrifying), the life of an aide who could have been doing something else with their life but instead will be using their labor to tard wrangle, and little bits of the lives of taxpayers.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

this has been such a strange thing to see unfold because i can promise you at least 90 percent of the people defending the downies would not be able to handle taking care of one nor would they put in the effort to give them to things they need to do well in life. personally i have had multiple experiences with downies both good and bad. ive seen the high functioning ones and ive seen the ones who im not even sure know they are alive.

but without power leveling too much one of my most memorable experiences was visiting a family member who made the choice to raise their downs kid. i met them when they were like 3 or 4 and they seemed normal to me back then so visiting them again when they were almost in their 20s was very shocking experience.

they still acted the exact same as they did when they were younger if not somehow less smart. they cant speak they cant write they cant read they have to wear diapers because they will just piss and shit whenever they want. they cant take a bath because they will drown. they wont bathe in general unless you wash them by hand yourself. they cant eat most foods because their mouth is fucked up so they choke easily they have weirdly small ears which they need to go to a doctor to get cleaned because the wax just stays there and clogs their ears and causes ear infections. they will wander into the middle of the road and stand there if they dont know where you are.

oh and they cant be around animals because they will kick and punch the animal because they think its like a stuffed animal. all of this is just scratching the surface as well. the worst part is their parents will most likely die long before the kid does and the only options they have are a group home or hoping someone thats not a rapist or a psychopath adopts them. either way i cant even begin to imagine the stress of that sort of thing especially with all the bad things you hear about going on in group homes it almost starts to feel like them dying before you would be the best option.

so when i see these people on xitter screeching about how downs kids are a blessing and always so happy and loving i really start to wonder how many of them would feel the same way if they had a kid like that or if they had some of the unfortunately cursed children that have threads on here due to their parents lust for exploiting their suffering.

The idea that high-functioning downies are super duper rare is bullshit.

i would say high-functioning downies are rare but not like ultra super rare. with downies a lot of what they become revolves around how they are raised and if the parents are able to provide them with the tools to succeed. it also really depends on what if any other defects they have. the majority of downies you see that are just a little slow but overall normal usually are just lucky enough to not really have much else wrong with them as well as parents who care enough and are able to work with them their entire lives. not every case is as lucky and for one reason or another its pretty common to have entirely non verbal downies or ones who cant really do anything. its almost like a spectrum in a way.

thats why i really cannot blame any parent for not wanting to roll the dice when theres a chance they could end up with a downie. because sure it might end up fine but at the same time they might end up with a kid who is so fucked they need 24 hour supervision only for them to die before they get into their teens due to heart issues that are also common with those types.

 

[Not 6 Foot]

RIP the kid but, like, reasonable. I get why they felt the need to tell everyone. Pretty sure this dude has basically had an entirely public life almost as long as YouTube has been around so it's not surprising this turned into some form of content for him.

I guess I'd be even more upset about if it they tried to hide the truth with, "pregnancy complications," and some autist dug up the truth about it.

 

[Lobster Cult High Priest]

His YouTube name is McJuggerNuggets.

Thanks I still never heard of him before.

 

[behavioral swamp thang]

Thanks I still never heard of him before.

He did a lot of collabs with Boogie2998 and Kidbehindacamera back in the day.

 

[FunPosting101]

Or one of the things that very rarely gets talked about but is a very serious issue, is that kids with these disabilities often go through the same hormonal changes as everyone else in puberty but with no potential for a normal outlet for that, and limited to nonexistent impulse control.

Decades ago, part of my work involved helping reasonably capable mentally disabled young adults do 'work' in the community, and sexual fixation was a recurring problem. At best, they'd 'fall in love' with one of the people they spent time working with. At worst there was definitely behaviour that in any other circumstances was sexual harassment and could potentially have become very dangerous. I've heard some horror stories from people who have much more experience working with people with these issues. Both in terms of disabled people being abused but also abusing others, without any real awareness that they are doing that.

Most people really have no idea at all of the realities for someone with the mental capabilities of a toddler and the body of an adult. It's not just awful or hellish, it's downright dangerous at times. The very small amount of time that I've spent working just on the sidelines of that has led me to the conclusion that while I do think it's very sad, abortion, as early as possible, is absolutely the lesser of two evils.

Yeah, I can't even see a prostitute being willing to fuck/be fucked by someone with Downs Syndrome unless it's one of the rare high-functioning cases. We're talking about people are less sexually appealing than Christian Weston Chandler or Cyraxx here, honestly.

 

[deleuzeon]

A future cow, dead, by selfish parents who don’t want to bless people online with their retards antics.

I love this website

 

[CAPTAIN HAPPY]

I can't be the only one who's horrified by the sheer number of people who actively want more downies and mentally disabled children to be born to live a life of suffering, right?

Yeah, let's kill all retarded downies.
You're up next on the chopping block tho.

 

[Dysnomia]

Is there abort option for social media influencers.

Oh God how I wish. This is why I love those horror movies where influencers get the axe.

This is really fucking simple to digest as disgusting as it is:

1: They are morally correct for aborting a child that has been known to be born with a severe life altering disability. the push for ppl to actually have special needs children after we have the testing available in utero is the most sadistic self serving bullshit line of logic ever. Both the parents that still go through with it and the ppl that push it

2: Shady pseudo-religious types/bad actors will try to use the sanctity of life argument but there is NO GOD on the books that wishes for a child to needlessly suffer so the parents can get clout/other drive bye parents can ass pat them. The parents historically that had 0 clue their child was going to have a disability that stuck around for that kids life were undeserving heros. intentionally having a child with a disability in the modern era is literally psychotic munchie-by-proxy/FDIA bullshit.

None of these ppl that are harping on these two idiots over this point have a leg to stand on other than parroting buzzphrases and interpretations of the bible skewed to bully their targets.


ANYONE that makes their life public deserves this kind of backlash for making something as gruesome as aborting your unborn child content regardless of the circumstances. I cant stand them for the fact that they were obviously trying to create a truman show kid, fuck em.

This. Not wanting to bring a disabled child into the world intentionally is not evil. But making your downie abortion content is fucked up and just shows you how bad the addiction to views and likes really is at this point. I can't hate influencers enough.

 

[Messiah Mike]

American christian’s are unique in how genuinely retarded they are. Because last I checked european christian’s weren’t objecting to aborting downies when eugenics was a thing, Hell most christian groups supported eugenics until ww2. A lot of the retarded shit we have to deal with today is due to people being psyoped into thinking litteraly everything hitler did was 100 percent evil with no reason behind it whatsoever. It seems the evangelicals got hit especially hard by the goybeam Maybe it’s because jews wrote their version bible

 

[Snack Cracker]

The idea that high-functioning downies are super duper rare is bullshit. I have been acquainted with a few myself throughout my life. Either I am extremely lucky at being proximate to people with rare outcomes of life or the rarity of high functioning downs is overstated as cope for people uncomfortable with the idea of murdering a viable human.

Keep in mind that you’re not likely to interact with the majority of downies that aren’t able to hold a job or volunteer or be in public by themselves.

I’ve met downies that bag groceries or take movie stubs at theaters too, but unless you’re a caseworker or social worker, you’re not going to be hanging out at group homes etc for the severely disabled ones with multiple health problems.

 

[George Lucas]

Keep in mind that you’re not likely to interact with the majority of downies that aren’t able to hold a job or volunteer or be in public by themselves.

I’ve met downies that bag groceries or take movie stubs at theaters too, but unless you’re a caseworker or social worker, you’re not going to be hanging out at group homes etc for the severely disabled ones with multiple health problems.

Of course. It’s not the most likely outcome, but there are people who say it’s like a 1 in 1 million chance and requires spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. That doesn’t line up with reality.

 

[Bunny Tracks]

Understandable, but them making content out of it is incredibly fucked up.

Same with how the conversation has slipped into a debate on whether, or not the disabled can truly live happy lives, or if they're just doomed to be burdens living in utter misery regardless of circumstance. It's nowhere near that black-and-white, but of course the people on reddit, and twitter are gonna act like it is.

 

[Makhnovshchina]

Disability is a spectrum. I've met people with all manners of disabilities of various cognitive abilities with braver people than me who care for them, personally I don't like being around low functioning disabled people but I don't hate them or wish for their death or even death by abortion. IT makes more sense and is more moral to have them live and be born and die by natural means especially through heart disease considering trisomy if you truly don't want them. Animals do that all the time by means of natural selection.

 

[Disgruntled Pupper]

Fun Fact: Up until 1869 Catholic church allowed abortion for any reason if it the fetus was less then 40 day old (foetus inanimatus), because before that point it didn't have a soul

Christianity as a whole can't make up its mind about when life begins or, now, when it should end.

Jesus totally hates baby killers, but never once condemned the use or selling of Silphium, a widely used contraceptive and powerful aborticide that was especially popular in the Roman Empire during His time and that jews basically controlled and facilitated the wide-spread trade of. He condemned the other thing the Romans and jews at the time had in common and both loved, easy and quick divorce, but somehow forgot to slide in the baby killing plant.

Then for a thousand years abortion was fine up until "quickening", or when the baby first moved, which is when the soul entered it's body. Then it became 40 days. Now it's never, even for a potato.

The same thing happened in reverse with defibrillation and life support. In the 60s through the 80s, if someone was a vegetable, in a coma, had a traumatic enough injury that until that point would have killed them, or even just had a heart attack, life support and restarting their heart was condemned as a sinful, artificial defiance of God's will. If your heart stopped, or your brain couldn't make you breath on your own, you were DEAD, and doctors restarting your heart or using machines to breath for you were Satanic necromancers. There were literally people picketing hospitals over this issue. By the mid 80s it was dying out, though some holdouts remained over the idea of life support even into the early 90s. Then Terry Schiavo happened and suddenly the evil doctors and her husband were trying to MURDER HER. Now we're at the stage where not only MUST you shit out the potato, if you don't DEMAND that doctors keep it on life support at the tax-payer cost of $10,000+ a day until they can repair its heart holes in a $200,000 surgery, you're a FUCKING MURDERER.