YouTube user Jesse Ridgway he doubles down on his decision to talk about himself and his wife Ashley deciding to have an abortion.
“A lot of pro-life people wish me and my wife dead, which is hypocritical,” said Jesse, 33, in a series of Instagram Stories videos on Wednesday, June 10. “Most of them use God and Jesus as their weapon and justification, but it doesn’t matter to me, because I don’t believe. I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe in God.”
Jesse said that he and Ashley, 31, have received many death threats since they broke the news earlier this month that they decided to have an abortion after finding out that their child was diagnosed with fetal Down syndrome.
The YouTube star – who goes by the moniker McJuggerNuggets – said he “doesn’t judge people for believing” in religion but, “When you start using it as a weapon, it becomes a problem.”
Jesse said, “People who say, ‘Go to hell,’ it doesn’t matter because I can’t go there, I don’t believe in it. Even for religious people, don’t we believe in forgiveness? We’ve sinned, haven’t we? I’ll keep pushing, guys. I can encourage more discussion on this topic.
“I’m sure a lot of people who would judge me will have this condition or some other chromosomal disorder. It happens. I didn’t think it would happen to me, and here I am,” he continued. “I never in a million years expected to be a child of abortion, because as a human being, it’s not something you deal with.”
He summed up the setback, saying, “It’s really crazy.”
Jesse first shared the news that he and Ashley had decided to terminate their pregnancy in a June 3 Instagram post.
YouTube star Jesse Ridgway has offered more insight into the decision he and his wife Ashley Ridgway made to have an abortion. “We were dealing with the situation of having a child, and we were playing out all the scenarios about what it would look like and how we would make it work, what if they had this life. […]
“This week, my wife and I made the very difficult decision to have an abortion due to Trisomy 21,” he wrote. “The decision was not made lightly. We are very grateful for the personal stories you shared with us, especially the unconditional support we receive from your fans no matter what we decide.”
“I know some of you may be very disappointed to hear this news. We are devastated,” added Jesse. “This is very sad for both of us, especially Ashley.”
The couple shared that their baby has fetal Down syndrome in April.
“The same genetic test that told us our baby would be a boy revealed to us that he had a 95% chance of being born with Down Syndrome,” Jesse wrote in a cryptic Instagram post at the time.
Jesse said he and Ashley were “shocked by the results.”
“Down Syndrome has a VERY HIGH risk of miscarriage and is often associated with heart defects, structural abnormalities, developmental problems, short life expectancy, etc,” he wrote. “As much as we’ve enjoyed parenthood, this was a gut-punch…We want the best for our first child…and we’re putting Ashley at risk…so many questions and concerns.”
