Archeologists, historians, and intellectuals today often like to debate whether more primitive ancient cultures actually did some of the barbaric things they have often been blamed for doing. One of those things is called “infant exposure"; it’s long been described that in ancient Rome, in ancient Greece, and in ancient Sparta, society allowed parents to decide not to care for unwanted children. So they would take the child to a remote or deserted location and abandon it “to await its fate.”
Applying academic rigor to justify or give nuance to the mindset of savages from thousands of years ago is something thinking people do today. What these ivory-tower thinkers do acknowledge is that regardless of how widespread it was, the practice of infant exposure was not uncommon.
It’s tragically ironic that these same intellectuals who sit on major university campuses are often less than a couple of blocks from a university medical center that actively practices the current-day form of infant exposure – abortion. More to the point, unwanted children are routinely killed in the womb in what is now considered a societal right of parents. If the child is not wanted, it's okay to stop a beating heart. Why put the child through the hardships of life? Kill it now.
Little did the ancient Romans know that if only the internet and social media existed then, parents who wanted to end the life of the child they conceived could have documented their choice and shared it online for internet clout. They could have been influencers.
Enter Jesse Ridgway, a YouTube influencer who goes by @McJuggerNuggets online, with 4.3 million followers on YouTube alone. Don’t ask me what makes him worth a follow. I can’t figure it. But right up front, this is Jesse and his wife Ashley announcing the great news to millions of their closest friends that they are having a baby, and make no mistake, that is what they are talking about here. They know it, and they say it. It’s a baby, not a clump of cells.
Because these are people who live their lives fully in front of their followers, they not only share everything, but uncomfortably, they do it with no filter in almost real time. No discretion. No privacy. Just exposure for clicks. How shameless is Jesse? This is he breaking the news to Ashley that the child she’s carrying may have Down syndrome.
Jesse Ridgway is absolutely vile. He handed his wife the test results showing that their baby likely had Down Syndrome, and he recorded this moment because he KNEW her reaction would be emotional - and that's great content!
— OutspokenSamantha (@Outspoken_Sam) June 6, 2026
Yes, Ashley has just as much responsibility in ending… pic.twitter.com/UdpNwHLPVU
If you’re with me so far, thank you, but be warned. It’s not going to get any better. Both of the Ridgways did not pull the plug on the social media voyeurism they routinely foster and welcome for clicks and shares. They continued to share everything about the baby Ashley was expecting, including their real-time discovery that indeed, the baby they conceived will be born with Down Syndrome.
YouTuber Jesse Ridgway and his wife abort their child after finding out the baby had Down syndrome.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 4, 2026
Ridgway cited that they chose to kill the baby after deciding that he and his wife didn't want to be inconvenienced with a child with Down syndrome.
"Things have been pretty dark… pic.twitter.com/NsloTi8dcq
I’d like to say they’re just shameless, and all they care about is influencer clout, but I don’t think that’s completely the case. With millions of like-minded followers, I’m sure they drew a lot of strength and support from their followers as they entered this uncharted territory.
On top of that, given their track record and experience with their followers, I’m 100% sure they expected nothing but affirmation for whatever choices they made.
Now, before we go any further, the only reason we’re talking about this is that the Ridgways decided this whole matter would not be a private one. They decided to make it play out in public. So anyone who tells you that you’re not allowed to disapprove of a personal choice they made regarding their baby — because it’s a “deeply personal” matter — has no ground to stand on. The second the Ridgways hit that “record” button on their video camera, and then “send” when they posted to social media, it was no longer a deeply private matter. It’s in the public domain, with all that this entails. They had the option every step of the way to take this offline and make it a private matter.
The baby received a Trisomy 21 diagnosis, which means Down syndrome. The Ridgways now had a decision to make. Keep it or abort it? Let it live, or kill it?
They decided to abort the child. Jesse 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. 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.
You can’t expect a YouTuber to be steeped in understanding of health and science, so in fairness to Jesse and Ashley, a Down Syndrome diagnosis not only may have come as a shock to them, but they appeared to have learned for the first time all of the health risks that come with a diagnosis, which include possible heart defects, hearing deficits, and stunted physical development.
Make no mistake, the medical establishment at this point is on the side of team abortion. One of the very reasons pregnant women agree to have their babies tested for Trisomy 21 is to enable them to kill the child when it’s legal to do so – in the womb. So when doctors talk to expectant mothers about all that comes with a Down Syndrome diagnosis, all they will likely want to talk about are those health risks, the challenges, and the long-term burdens that the parents and the child will face. There is one thing they will almost always leave out of the discussion, and that is the amount of love that child will return to loving parents.
And so Jesse and Ashley did what it seems everyone around them felt was the right thing to do — they chose abortion. Of course, they announced this deeply personal and private decision to their millions of followers, most likely looking for more support and affirmation. To a great extent, they got it. Team abortion has many fans. But so does team life, and so that’s when the Ridgways heard from some people who did not agree at all with them. They heard from some people who did not affirm their choice.
That’s when the Ridgways reported to TMZ that to their horror, killing their Down Syndrome baby did not generate widespread affirmation.
Jesse and Ashley Ridgway on the backlash for aborting their baby with Down Syndrome:
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) June 5, 2026
"[People are saying] I don't deserve to be a mother because of the decision that we just made."
"We've seen the darkest side of humanity through this." pic.twitter.com/ntGK0tL899
Shocking, isn’t it? You decide to kill your disabled baby in the womb, and all of a sudden people who believe in God come out and tell you this may not be good for your soul. The backlash to their public revelation of their abortion is what Jesse described as “the darkest side of humanity.”
They’re the real victims here. Remember that. Not the child they were so happy to call a child when they thought it was completely healthy. When that was the case, it was wanted and welcomed. But the second that they and the people around them deemed it imperfect, now they’re the real victims.
In reviewing the arguments supporting the Ridgways’ decision, the most common one is that having a disabled child is a lifelong commitment; it’s hard, it’s challenging, and the child may outlive you. To which I say, “Duh?!?”
A few days a week, I swim at a nearby YMCA, and the time I choose to go is often in sync with the routine of a Down Syndrome adult and his professional helper, who swims with him. In talking with the helper, I’ve learned that this is one of those cases where the young man with Down Syndrome has outlived his parents, but fortunately they planned for this day, and enabled him to live out his days with what I see as professional, and dare I say it, loving care. The helper couldn’t be more attentive, careful, and protective at all times.
Not long ago, I was talking to someone about this, and I told them that if I were this young man’s parents, I would be so glad and grateful that he is in good hands.
I realize that not everyone is so fortunate, but why should we apply the perfection standard only to people with Down Syndrome? Why must the choice be so binary? Either they have what we erroneously expect to be a perfect life in advance, or they must be killed in the womb.
Needless to say, news of Jesse and Ashley Ridgway deciding to abort a Down Syndrome baby mobilized many who, for their part, decided not to abort their Down Syndrome kids.
Dear @McJuggerNuggets,
— TraderJill (Leigh) (@RealTraderJill) June 5, 2026
You just asked the world for empathy and sympathy because you aborted your unborn baby because you found out he had Downs Syndrome.
I'm not sure if this is some sick humiliation ritual, or you and your wife are simply dead inside, but I'd like to show you… pic.twitter.com/gd6FK7dA5H
"I am a man. See me as a human being—not a birth defect, not a syndrome. I don’t need to be eradicated."
— Anna Lulis (@annamlulis) June 5, 2026
Frank Stephens pleads for the humanization of people with Down syndrome, studies suggest 67-90% are aborted in the United States due to faulty prenatal screenings. pic.twitter.com/jtXWUS8PmJ
If you are considering abortion because your child has down syndrome, please watch this video first. pic.twitter.com/uJ8gkHNiJd
— RaisingPatriots (@raisingpatriots) June 4, 2026
These are the people and the images Big Abortion does not want you to see. These are the people and the images that the medical establishment and the insurance industry do not want you to know about.
Life is hard no matter what challenges await you and your children. You can take the easy way out, which all too often is what barbaric cultures once chose, and people still choose – the killing of the innocents. Or, you can choose love, which is so much harder, fraught with risk, expensive, and uncertain. But the rewards on earth and in Heaven are unimaginable.
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