Popular YouTuber Jesse Ridgeway announced last week that he and his wife decided to abort their unborn baby with Down syndrome.

“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 said in a post on X. “I know some of you may be very disappointed to hear this news. We are devastated. This has been extremely traumatic for both of us, especially Ashley.”

Ridgeway said that after he and his wife learned the news about their unborn child, they did not immediately plan to abort him or her.

“When I first confronted this news, I was shocked but optimistic,” he said. “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 some of the health statistics associated with Down syndrome, concluding, “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.”

Ridgeway further justified their decision by noting that it’s a popular one, saying that “up to 90% of women terminate their pregnancy after learning the baby has Trisomy 21.” The exact percentage is hard to pin down, but anywhere from 60 to 90% of Down syndrome babies in the United States are aborted, still a staggering statistic.

He then justified his own public announcement, writing, “This was WAY higher than I expected, I thought it would be lower given that I hear so many say they kept or would keep the baby. I believe that’s because most terminations happen privately, it feels shameful. A lot of judgment being cast.”

The post ended by thanking fans for their “understanding” and suggesting that the couple might try again later and “hopefully have a better outcome.”

Pro-lifers were quick to push back on this heartbreaking decision and sad, dangerous rhetoric.

Michael Alfonso wrote for The Federalist that his six-year-old sister-in-law Valentina “had heart surgery and ear surgery — two concerns Ridgway listed. Yet Valentina is the ultimate joy of the Duffy family I married into. She’s the unquestioned favorite among all nine Duffy children. She loves music, having her hair done like her big sisters, and wearing ‘pretty dresses.’”

Former Senator Rick Santorum responded, “Our 8th child has Trisomy 18. The prognosis we were given was even more devastating. Thankfully I had learned that a father’s job is to love protect and provide while shepherding her to heaven. I learned all of my children are disabled in some way. All of them suffer physically and mentally. They all will break your heart and give you great joy. “

“Your child deserved so much more,” the pro-life group Live Action said. “Disabled children are just as valuable as able-bodied children. Killing children because of a diagnosis isn’t just ableism. It’s evil.”

Ridgeway later said that he also received death threats in response. There is no place for that kind of vitriol. But as for the general backlash, he shouldn’t be surprised that so many pro-lifers and parents who raise children with special needs aren’t happy.

“There are a million abortions every year, and I’m just shocked that one couple deciding to abort for Trisomy 21 is mainstream news,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “This is happening every day, and it’s just not talked about.”

He’s sadly right that this is an everyday occurrence, and if there’s anything good that can come of this story, it’s that pro-lifers have a chance to speak the truth in love to the Ridgeways and any other couples who may be facing life-changing news. All human life is valuable, no matter how many chromosomes we have, and every unborn baby deserves a chance at life.