Recently, famous YouTubers Jesse Ridgway and Ashley Ridgway announced the abortion of their preborn baby.

According to them, their reasoning was due to the fact that their baby received a diagnosis of Trisomy 21, commonly known as Down Syndrome.

This news shocked many across the internet: the brutal murder of a baby simply because of a diagnosis.

Perhaps more shocking were the reactions of the parents and their insistence on being the victims of the diagnosis when in reality, their murdered child is the only true victim.

Jesse is quoted as saying:

“Down Syndrome isn’t a ‘blessing,’ it is objectively s – – tty from a health perspective…

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.”

As a mom, I will never understand the capability of a woman to take the life of her own child.

God has given parents the biological instinct to nurture and protect their children. When this instinct is seemingly gone, as in the case of the Ridgway’s, it will never not be shocking.

But this has opened the broader conversation of the abortion’s industry response to the Down Syndrome diagnosis and the mindset of eugenics that is alive and well in our culture.

Healthline reports,

“In the United States each year, more than 6,000 babies with Down syndrome are born, according to the National Down Syndrome Society.

However, almost none are born in Iceland.

That’s because nearly 100 percent of women in Iceland who receive a positive test for Down syndrome choose to terminate the pregnancy.

Iceland isn’t alone in having high termination rates.

In Denmark, 98 percent of pregnancies with a Down syndrome diagnosis are terminated.

In France, it’s 77 percent, and in the United States it’s 67 percent.”

Jesse’s claim that the life of his baby with Down Syndrome would not be a blessing at all, but a burden, exposes the cavalier attitude that so many have towards life in the womb.

It also exposes the eugenics mindset that too many parents have when having children: “if the baby is not healthy according to my standards, I will kill it.”

Despite the anger that Jesse and Ashley are feeling due to the backlash they have received, they are in no ways victims of their child’s diagnosis.

The only victim in this scenario is the precious baby whose only crime was having an extra chromosome. The Down Syndrome diagnosis should never be a death sentence.

Down Syndrome individuals are some of the most loving, compassionate, caring, joyful, and empathetic people in our society, and our society is worse off for not having their presence.

We, as Christians, must continue to strive for the dignity and value of every single life in the womb, and we must work to make abortion unthinkable in every circumstance.