Youtuber and wife receive backlash for terminating pregnancy of fetus that tested positive for Down Syndrome/Trisomy 21

[Angiebla]

https://people.com/influencers-made-...nosis-11991316

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."

[Bewitchingstorm]

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3D...46s9UqvSsELwew

Jesse's IG: https://www.instagram.com/mcjuggernuggets/?hl=en

Wife's IG: https://www.instagram.com/ashreneeway/?hl=en

[Nic B]

I'm surprised she was able to get one.

[Angiebla]

I'm surprised she was able to get one.

Same

[Boston Babe 73]

Honestly, if that is what they felt they needed to do then it's nobody else's business. It costs money and time to raise a child with special needs so if all of these outraged people aren't going to step up and take that child, they need to STFU. They're also the first people that will support taking Medicare and food stamps away from kids with special needs. Fucking hypocrites.

Their choice, not anyone else's. I'm sick of hearing about it.

[raisedbywolves]

It is nobody's business, and no one wants to hear about some influencer using their pregnancy to get views. I just want everyone to shut the fuck up!

[jennafyre]

Sorry if this is annoying. Can we change the title to say either "child with down syndrome" or "fetus that tested positive for down syndrome/trisomy 21"?

[Bewitchingstorm]

Sorry if this is annoying. Can we change the title to say either "child with down syndrome" or "fetus that tested positive for down syndrome/trisomy 21"?

Done.

[Angiebla]

I just think its ironic these YouTubers are such attention whores theypimped out the pregnancy then ooops terminated the pregnancy and noone better bring it up!

[Bewitchingstorm]

I just think its ironic these YouTubers are such attention whores theypimped out the pregnancy then ooops terminated the pregnancy and noone better bring it up!

That is what gets me. If they had kept things private instead of revealing everything to the world, there would not be such controversy.

[marshmallow]

They made a painful private decision and then posted it to the world knowing the attention it would bring them. Good attention or bad attention, as long as they get their 'influencer' attention.

[raisedbywolves]

That is what gets me. If they had kept things private instead of revealing everything to the world, there would not be such controversy.

Hence my post above:

It is nobody's business, and no one wants to hear about some influencer using their pregnancy to get views. I just want everyone to shut the fuck up!

Everyone knows how I feel about abortion rights, but this shouldn't be something you put our there for likes and views. Everyone in this situation is the asshole.

[Bewitchingstorm]

Hence my post above:

Everyone knows how I feel about abortion rights, but this shouldn't be something you put our there for likes and views. Everyone in this situation is the asshole.

Agree entirely. I dare say that he might be the type that feels any attention is good because it brings him more clicks.

[Boston Babe 73]

Hence my post above:

Everyone knows how I feel about abortion rights, but this shouldn't be something you put our there for likes and views. Everyone in this situation is the asshole.

I can agree with this. Family vloggers bug the living shit out of me and it's never any good for the children involved either. There needs to be stricter regulations on people who use their kids on their channels. They don't get the same protections as child actors, but this is essentially what they are. I can't think of any Irish or European channels that do this at all. I know that there are strict GDPR regulations in the EU that might prevent this kind of thing. Pewdiepie and his wife were family vlogging for a while, but now that their Son is a toddler, they've notified people that they are going to stop the family vlogs this year. They're based in Japan so not part of the EU.

[Bewitchingstorm]

Some states are starting to put protections into place.

California (The "Kidfluencer" Law): California passed a law requiring parents who feature their children in monetized content to place a percentage of the child's gross earnings into a blocked trust fund (known as a Coogan Account) until the child turns 18. It also enforces limits on work hours and mandates schooling for child content creators.

Illinois & Washington: Several other states, like Illinois and Washington, have introduced or passed similar legislation ensuring that children who generate social media income receive a guaranteed share of the earnings.

[Nic B]

Some states are starting to put protections into place.

Good!

[Bewitchingstorm]

What a POS.

YouTuber Jesse Ridgway posted an offensive skit mocking Down syndrome years before he and his wife aborted her pregnancy to avoid having a baby with the condition.

The internet personality made a 45-minute video in 2017 in which he played a character with Down syndrome, using a stereotypical voice and mannerisms often used to mock developmentally disabled people.

In the footage, shot while filming the series “The Devil Inside,” he slurs “I have Down syndrome” before adding “I want to go to Chuck E. Cheese.”

Ridgway did the tone-deaf impression while filming a scene in which his character snaps and becomes someone with the genetic condition.

Ridgway defended the video as art, saying he was playing the role of someone whose brain was “fried.”

”I play a character named Isaac Kalder who has hijacked Jesse Ridgway’s life. My family is pissed so they hold me at gunpoint and force me to switch chars rapidly. The identity switches happen too fast and it fries my brain,”Ridgway told TMZ.

People with Down Syndrome don’t have damaged brains, rather, the structure of their brains is altered by an extra copy of chromosome 21.

https://nypost.com/2026/06/10/us-new...ing-condition/

[Nic B]

Not going to lie, I did stupid shit like this when I was younger. Doing impressions of special ed people and calling it the R word. I am so glad I learned to be better than that as I got older....and that there was no social media to remind me forever.

[Bewitchingstorm]

Not going to lie, I did stupid shit like this when I was younger. Doing impressions of special ed people and calling it the R word. I am so glad I learned to be better than that as I got older....and that there was no social media to remind me forever.

He was in his mid-20s when he did this video, so it is not like he was a teenager.

[Nic B]

He was in his mid-20s when he did this video, so it is not like he was a teenager.

Oh I know, I am not excusing his behavior, it just reminded me of how horrible I was sometimes.

[Angiebla]

Not going to lie, I did stupid shit like this when I was younger. Doing impressions of special ed people and calling it the R word. I am so glad I learned to be better than that as I got older....and that there was no social media to remind me forever.

Same, but I think he was definately confused about the condition and how they act. But putting that on camera ? Beyond dumb.

Jenna made me see the light and not use that word anymore. I was such an asshole for using it.

[Nic B]

Same, but I think he was definately confused about the condition and how they act. But putting that on camera ? Beyond dumb.

Jenna made me see the light and not use that word anymore. I was such an asshole for using it.

You're not an asshole, as soon as you were aware of it you stopped. It's the people that KNOW but continue to use it. I got into a back and forth with someone on Nextdoor about the correct terms for little people. They insisted on calling them the M word even after I said that is derogatory. Ugh.

[jennafyre]

Same, but I think he was definately confused about the condition and how they act. But putting that on camera ? Beyond dumb.

Jenna made me see the light and not use that word anymore. I was such an asshole for using it.

Not an asshole. Thank you for being open to my input. Assholes not only don't change, they don't see a problem in the first place! What's opposite of an asshole? This is what chatgpt said: "The opposite of an asshole is a mouth—one takes stuff in, the other sends it out". Thanks for being a mouth

[Angiebla]

Not an asshole. Thank you for being open to my input. Assholes not only don't change, they don't see a problem in the first place! What's opposite of an asshole? This is what chatgpt said: "The opposite of an asshole is a mouth—one takes stuff in, the other sends it out". Thanks for being a mouth