Jesse and Ashley Ridgway have received death threats from religious pro-life people after they announced that Ashley had an abortion after a Downs syndrome diagnosis. Jesse told TMZ that he now has a gun next to his nightstand because of the threats from pro-lifers.
The influencer couple at the center of online controversy after ending a pregnancy following a Down syndrome diagnosis is opening up about why they chose to make their story public. pic.twitter.com/3FXVBi1LS9
People share many personal things on social media — infidelity, job loss, terminal illness. But almost never this. The post, viewed 22.1 million times, received a torrent of hateful comments from parents of children with Down syndrome, abortion opponents and even the House speaker, Mike Johnson, who called the couple’s decision “evil.” The couple said they had received death threats and been likened to Hitler.
“We are not able to hide from it,” Mr. Ridgway said in a phone interview on Friday. “It’s on every social platform, and it’s gotten so big that people from my high school are reaching out.”
The Ridgways’ decision was not unusual. Among pregnant women in the United States who receive a Down syndrome diagnosis, about 74 percent choose to terminate the pregnancy, research shows. That figure is even higher in some other countries, such as Iceland, where almost all such pregnancies are aborted.
