Contributor: ATTWN Staff
Key Takeaways:
- A YouTuber and his wife chose to abort their unborn son at 21 weeks after a Down syndrome diagnosis, sparking widespread public debate.
- In response, people with Down syndrome and their families flooded social media with positive content and research showing that 99% of people with Down syndrome report being happy with their lives, and the vast majority of their siblings and parents express love and pride.
- Actress Kennedy Garcia, who has Down syndrome, pushed back publicly against the narrative, asserting her worth and humanity – and she faced significant hostility in the comments on her post.
- Aborting a child due to a disability raises troubling ethical questions about where the logic of “quality of life” reasoning ultimately leads.
Today’s culture is one where parents get to decide if their unborn child lives or dies, for any reason or no reason. Lives are either cherished and cultivated or they are discarded and killed. If the unborn baby isn’t perfect or has a disability, some parents believe it’s better to end its life because that life lived may be hard for the child, and more especially, the parents and family.
That’s what one YouTuber and his wife decided. Their unborn baby boy was diagnosed with Down syndrome, and that was just not compatible with their lifestyle, and “objectively sh*tty,” as the YouTuber put it, so they ended its life at 21 weeks gestation. Jesse Tyler Ridgway wrote that “we made a difficult decision that we believe in the long run will be beneficial for our family.”
Not his son.
He continued, saying, “It will take a little time to move on, but we are excited to try again in the future and hopefully have a better outcome.” Or not. What if his next kid has the same diagnosis, or something more serious? How many abortions are too many? And how far does the logic go? If his toddler has an accident and becomes disabled, can he just kill him, too, because it is “objectively sh*tty” after all?
Ridgway’s story opens up a line of questions that not only he should answer, but all those in favor of abortion for any or no reason at all.
The Shining Light of Down Syndrome Kids
The upside of this tragic story is all the amazing posts from those with Down syndrome kids and adults with that extra chromosome. The outpouring of love and affection has been widespread, which is a beautiful thing to see. This reel is a tear-jerker from Grace Strobel, a woman with Down syndrome who works as a model.
Grace notes these facts about Down syndrome, which have been posted and cited in many other places as well, to show that a life living with Down syndrome is overall a happy one:
- 99% of people with Down syndrome are happy with their lives.
- 97% like who they are.
- 96% of siblings love their brother or sister with Down syndrome and think they are better people because of them.
- 97% of families say they are proud of their children.
And this reel from a mom whose daughter has Down syndrome illustrates just how beautiful that life is.
Posts like these are everywhere across social media. Ridgway unknowingly opened the floodgates, showing just how amazing people with Down’s are and how much their families and friends love them for who they are.
“Not Your Story”
Yet because the internet can be a cesspool of people with zero conscience or compassion, there is this story: Kennedy Garcia, an actress with Down syndrome, posted, “Good thing someone else’s limited imagination doesn’t determine my worth.” She’s right. But glance at the comments, and we hope this girl has nerves of steel:
The post has thousands of comments, many deriding Kennedy for speaking up about the story and effectively claiming her life is of no value because of “choice”. Kennedy had a response:
Children with Down syndrome are made and loved by God. Children with Down syndrome are as human as every other child. Children with Down syndrome have a right to life. No child should be murdered in the womb just because they have Down syndrome. That’s disgusting.