Jesse Ridgway, a famous YouTuber with almost 2.5 billion views, had a viral post on X recently in which he announced that he and his wife had recently faced a “difficult decision” after learning that his wife was pregnant with a baby with Down syndrome. The decision was whether to abort the child.
After serious consideration, they decided in favor of abortion. The decision, he said, left them devastated, and his wife “emotionally drained.” As he explains their reasoning, it becomes clear their tragic choice was made on bad information.
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First, Ridgway’s statistics are a bit off. He states that the birth incidence of Down syndrome is 1 in 1,000. According to the CDC’s latest statistics, the live birth prevalence is less rare at 1 in 640 in the U.S. In parts of Europe where abortion is more prevalent, the live birth incidence drops to around 1 in 990, but Ridgway doesn’t live in Europe.
Down syndrome does have real consequences. The extra copy of chromosome 21 causes the body to produce higher levels of many proteins, and those effects ripple throughout the body over the course of a lifetime.
Some vision and hearing loss is common, and autoimmune conditions are possible, too. The cognitive challenges of people with Down syndrome are well known, but they typically fall within the mild to moderate range of intellectual disability.
Ridgway is correct, Down syndrome is a developmental disability, and he lists some physical and intellectual consequences, but those consequences aren’t as devastating as he implies. Thyroid disease is most common — Hashimoto’s thyroiditis appears in between 13 and 34% of individuals; Alopecia areata in about 27.7%; and celiac disease in 5.8% (see here). Anywhere from 27 to 35% of individuals with Down syndrome will develop some autoimmune condition, but these aren’t usually severely life-limiting conditions. Ridgway advisers exaggerate their impact.
Ridgway claims that after speaking with doctors, friends, family, and genetic counselors, he learned the abortion rate following prenatal screening is as high as 90%. Researchers who have studied termination rates in depth have concluded that the average termination rate after prenatal screening is 74%. The authors of this study are careful to state that this number doesn’t imply that 74 ]% fewer babies were born. They discern a 37% reduction in the number of babies born because of prenatal diagnosis and abortion.
Many parents have responded to Ridgway’s post with pictures of their children and positive testimonies of their family’s experience of having a child with Down syndrome. They tell the true story of what it’s like to have a child with an extra 21st chromosome, and their stories are reinforced by data that shows 99% of families love their child with Down syndrome, 97% say they are proud of their child with Down syndrome, and 79% reported that their outlook on life was more positive because of their child.
Why weren’t Ridgway and his wife introduced to these statistics before making the “difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy” that has left them “devastated”? Jesse and his wife were given a bleak picture of their future rather than the true story of joy and hope that parents really experience.
In October 2008, Congress passed a bill called the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act, and the purpose of the legislation was to require the federal government to make up-to-date, evidence-based information available about conditions that could be subject to prenatal or early postnatal diagnosis — conditions like Down syndrome and others. The bill was never funded, so states began to take up the issue themselves.
As of January 2025, 23 states had passed legislation requiring parents receiving a prenatal diagnosis of a genetic condition (usually Down syndrome) to receive factual and current information on the disability, including positive outcomes experienced by families who have welcomed children with the same condition into their homes.
Research on the effectiveness of this legislation has shown little impact. Quoting from the research, 42% of parents reported that following a prenatal cell-free DNA screen, their physician encouraged them to abort the pregnancy. The research shows many doctors have a clear bias in favor of abortion.
DOBBS GAVE STATES POWER. MIFEPRISTONE TOOK IT BACK
It’s a harsh word to use for the practice of disability selective abortion, but it is undeniably a eugenic practice. As the reproductive healthcare industry continues its quest to sell perfect children by screening embryos during IVF to eliminate “imperfections,” the prenatal testing industry thrives, and physicians use the data acquired by the tests to encourage parents to make “devastating” choices.
I am sorry for the Ridgways. They faced a difficult choice and seemed to have decided with bad information. I pray they find healing from the devastation that their decision has caused their family, and that they use their fame to warn others against similar choices.
Mark Bradford is the Fellow for Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities at the Word on Fire Institute.