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Influencer couple Jesse and Ashley Ridgway revealed that they started sleeping next to a gun due to the backlash over their decision to terminate her pregnancy.
“With the death threats and everything, it has been shocking,” Jesse, 33, admitted on the Friday, June 5, episode of TMZ Live. “Close people to us are very judgmental. Religious-based [people] saying we’re going to burn in hell. ‘We deserve to die.’”
He confirmed, “We had a [security] gate installed. I have a gun next to my nightstand because it’s been getting so ridiculous and [threats] have been coming to emails, DMs, you name it. We’ve seen the darkest side of humanity through this process.”
Jesse and Ashley, 31, announced they were expecting their first baby boy in March before finding out in a vlog that he had “a 95 percent chance to be born with Down syndrome.”
“We were so excited to celebrate the gender reveal in a Psycho video with you guys, but in true ‘art imitates life’-fashion … there had to be a dark twist,” Jesse wrote via Instagram at the time.
Earlier this week, Jesse shared via Instagram that he and Ashley chose to terminate her pregnancy because of potential complications associated with Down syndrome (a.k.a Trisomy 21).
“I know some of you may be very disappointed to hear this news. We are devastated,” Jesse wrote. “This has been extremely traumatic for both of us, especially Ashley.”
He confirmed that “everything went smoothly” with Ashley’s abortion but the couple struggled with the emotional toll of making such a heartbreaking decision.
“Trisomy 21, also known as Down syndrome, is caused by an extra chromosome. It is caused by an error in cell division, like a glitch. The odds of a baby having it is 1 in 100,” he noted. “When I first confronted this news, I was shocked but optimistic. If they’re a little slow intellectually, then we’ll make it work. I signed on to be a parent, come what may. I just didn’t fully understand what Down syndrome entailed.”
Jesse told his followers that his and Ashley’s decision to terminate was informed by learning more about the kind of life their baby might face with Down syndrome.
“I didn’t realize just how rough it is for the child, let alone the family,” the YouTuber wrote. “We spoke with doctors, friends, family and genetic counselors and learned that up to 90 percent of women terminate their pregnancy after learning the baby has Trisomy 21. … You never think you’d be in this type of situation until it happens to you and then things change.”
Jesse concluded, “As for us, we made a difficult decision that we believe in the long-run will be beneficial for our family. Thankfully, we had a choice. 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.”
While many of the influencer’s fans sent well-wishes, Jesse later admitted he’d “never seen such hate and vitriol for two people grieving the loss of their unborn child and making an impossible decision.”
“What’s more troubling is a lot of these people use God or Jesus as their justification for threatening us and wanting to cast us into hell … seems pretty hypocritical,” he wrote. “So many saying they would’ve kept the child, put it up for adoption or are suddenly ready to adopt a Down syndrome child, that’s great! You can do all those things.”
“There has been some heinous s*** said about my wife and I on some extremely large accounts. It baffles me that there are such trashy-ass people who have significant followings,” Jesse added. “If you can’t contribute anything meaningful to the conversation aside from insults, then just don’t post.”
Despite the backlash, Ashley revealed on Friday’s TMZ Live episode that she did not regret sharing her decision to terminate her pregnancy.
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