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- [00:00]
Daily Wire Host
Colorado is trying to silence free speech again. A state law forces businesses to use customers preferred pronouns even if they're biologically inaccurate. With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian bookstore and a sports apparel company are challenging the law, but a court recently ruled against them. They appealed the ruling, and with ADF's help, they'll keep fighting another attempt by Colorado to skirt the First Amendment. Learn more about how you can support free speech by texting wire to 83848 or going to joinadf.com wire so good,
- [00:31]
Ad Break Announcer
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- [00:33]
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- [00:57]
Daily Wire Host (Main Speaker)
These days, the most popular buzzword to throw around on social media for social justice Brownie Points is genocide. The intentional, partial or total destruction of an entire group of people based on their national identity, their race, their religious affiliation, or another external characteristic. But what if I told you that most of the world, despite what they're posting with black squares or Free Palestine hashtags on social media, is not only okay with genocide, but is actively celebrating it and calling it lifesav saving Health Care Today we are witnessing the eradication of an entire group of people, happening very quietly in operating rooms or the silence of your own bathroom, targeting an entire group of people based on a disability. We are practicing eugenics, selectively breeding certain people that we deem to be the best people who have passed quality control and brutally murdering those who don't fit the bill. We don't call this genocide, even though it is. We don't call this eugenics even though it is. We call this abortion. And somehow it's all labeled under the umbrella of women's rights. All of this has come bubbling to the surface on social media this week after a major YouTuber named Jesse Ridgeway posted a long essay to Twitter about the devastating diagnosis he and his wife received for their preborn baby of down syndrome and because of that, made the difficult decision to terminate their pregnancy, AKA child, because they deem that baby to be an inconvenience to them. Here's what he had to say this week, my wife and I made the difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy due to trisomy 21. The choice was not made lightly. We really appreciate all of the Personal stories that you guys shared with us, especially the unconditional support we received from fans with no matter what we decided. I know some of you may be disappointed to hear this news. We are devastated. This has been extremely traumatic for both of us, especially Ashley, who I presume is his wife. She underwent the procedure earlier this week and is on the men. Thankfully everything went smoothly but a emotionally we are drained. 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 1000. 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, but I just didn't fully understand what down syndrome entailed. Once we made it public, it became clear that most people don't know what down syndrome entails. No, it's not the same as autism. Hang on a second. Now we're like comparing different disabilities based on what's more difficult for parents to deal with. And one deserves to live while the other one doesn't, he continues. 50% of babies with down syndrome have heart defects, 75% will have hearing challenges. Over 50% will have vision problems, impaired immune function, developmental disabilities, learning disabilities, delayed physical development, poor muscle tone, structural issues with face, decreased lifespan, etc. Sadly, the list is long. Feel free to look it up. Down syndrome is isn't a blessing. It is objectively, from a health perspective. A lot to unpack there, which we'll get to, he says. 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. The miscarriage risk is also close to 50%, which made matters worse, they may never see the light of day and it puts Ashley further at risk. We spoke with doctors, friends, family and genetic counselors and learned that up to 90% of women let me say that again. 90% of women in America terminate their pregnancy after learning that their baby has trisomy 21, aka down syndrome. This was way higher than I expected. I thought it would be lower given that I hear so many say they kept or would keep their baby. I believe that it's because most terminations happen privately and because of that it feels shameful. A lot of judgment being cast. You never think that you'd be in this type of situation until it happens to you and then think things change to all of my fans who have weighed in on this topic who have autism, down syndrome or any other diagnosis, we appreciate you. You matter a lot and we're so glad you're here. We're glad you're here, but not our baby. I commend you and your families for having the strength and courage to push forward. 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, a little time to move on, but we are excited to try again in the future and hopefully have a better outcome. I love you guys and thank you for understanding. Let me just first say I don't personally know Jesse Ridgeway. I don't know his spouse. I don't personally have anyone in my immediate or extended family with a Down syndrome diagnosis, although I've known many people with down syndrome throughout my life. But what really tugs at my heart as a mom and makes me feel so uneasy in the pit of my stomach is the fact that this particular individual seems to have boiled his baby's entire existence, the entire Persona of this little life safely growing within his wife's womb, down to statistics. And it immediately Reading this tweet brought me back to a crazy, ridiculous viral story published by CBS News in 2017 about Iceland being the first country to virtually eradicate down syndrome. Not because there was suddenly a magic cure for this disability, but because 100% virtually of all pregnancies with a Down syndrome diagnosis were aborted. 100%. They published this almost 10 years ago. Now, with the rise of prenatal screening tests across Europe and the United States, the number of babies born with down syndrome has significantly decreased. But few countries have come as close to eradicating down syndrome births as Iceland. And for the record, having gone through pregnancy as a mom, sometimes these statistics are wrong. Sometimes these diagnoses are wrong. With the new genetic screening that you do in your 9th or 10th week of pregnancy with an NIPT test which screens for chromosomal abnormalities and as a fun aside, usually gets to tell you the sex of your baby a lot earlier than we used to do it during the halfway through ultrasound at your anatomy scan. Up to 10% of the time, a positive screening for down syndrome ends up being a false positive on an NIPT test. Not that being a false positive or an actual positive for down syndrome remotely impacts the value that you have as a human being. But my heart breaks to think about how many parents have been given a false positive diagnosis and pushed more often than not by their healthcare provider into killing their baby as the more compassionate option because their baby might present additional difficulties to their family or be a little extra dependent on them throughout their life. All of that said, this is boiling down your baby to statistics nonetheless. But here's the heartbreaking truth. There is only one statistical certainty in life 100% of the time. You, me, our children, and everyone else we know and love begin dying at the moment we are born. Death is a 100% certainty and right alongside it, suffering at some point in this lifetime is a 100% certainty, at least in this lifetime before we are reunited with God in eternal life. But there are some other statistics about human life that I think we have to start keeping in mind too. Because I can't tell you how often I am seeing posts on social media, having conversations with people on college campuses, or just hearing the changing cultural norm that it is somehow more compassionate to violently kill someone before they are born on the off chance that they may experience some sort of suffering in their life, whether it's socioeconomic hardship or dealing with a disability or anything else under the sun. Julie on X had a fantastic response to this devastating post shared by Jesse Ridgway and I hope this completely moves the Overton window on how we view so suffering through the lens of statistics in our country and culture, she says. Your decision seems to be made on a lot of statistics about health issues surrounding down syndrome. Sadly, many of the conditions you cited, your other future children, and indeed you yourself, should they and you be allowed to live, are also likely to experience. Get this, 1/3 of the world's population will die from heart disease. 50% of all adults will experience hearing challenges. 30% will experience vision problems. 10% will experience decreased immune function. That number increases to 100% as people get older and age. 20% of adults have a developmental disability. 15% have a learning disability. Another 15% have delayed physical development. 8% have poor muscle tone. 3% have facial structural issues. These numbers are all approximate, as were the numbers that you were given. The one statistic that is 100% without error is that you and your future children will be given dying the moment that you are born. You will experience any variety of health issues and injuries. You might even be funny looking or not good at stuff. But you will have been given a chance at life and love of those around you. A child. Your child was just murdered and denied the chance of life and love because some of their stats were just a little bit higher than yours. It's a tough pill to swallow, but it's reality. And the craziest part about all of this, by the way, when I look at this story of the Ridgeway family, is that they put out this, this massive novel of a post on social media, presumably to try to gain sympathy points from people or connect with their audience in some meaningful way about the decision to brutally end their child's life through abortion so that they didn't have to suffer after they were born. But this same creator has made countless posts on social media about taking all necessary means available to him to keep his dog with terminal cancer alive to hell the costs, because his dog is his hero in life. He posted this literally on May 12, three weeks before sharing that he ended the life of his child. It was his dog's super sixth birthday after she was diagnosed with stage four kidney disease last year, around her fifth birthday. The vet said she had weeks to live. If we were lucky, maybe a few months. Here we are a whole year later, she is still fighting. She is in the 0.0001% of Superhero Dogs that can continue living with no kidneys. Took both of his dog's kidneys out. It has been an emotional celebration. We all need a hero in this life. Jenny has been one of mine. Keep fighting, Ms. Poppy. We love you lots. I don't even really fault Jesse or his wife here as solely responsible for this complete cognitive dissonance and the tragedy of prioritizing your dog's life over your baby and the killing brutally of their child. Because let's face it, what probably really happened here is this was a family extremely excited about bringing their baby into the world. They had an abnormal test result and the very first thing that any of their doctors or healthcare practitioners said to them is, oh, well, everybody just terminates their pregnancy at this point. Everybody does. Like I said, the NIPT test, that initial chromosomal screening test, usually happens at like 9 to 12 weeks of pregnancy, usually around the 10th week, which is extremely early. Some OB GYN offices won't even see you until 10 weeks of pregnancy. And I can't tell you how many of my friends and people that I intimately know have experienced walking into a doctor's office, getting an abnormal ultrasound result or an abnormal blood screening test result and instantly being told, well, your baby isn't really a baby. Actually at this stage, your baby is just kind of a clump of cells. It's just tissue. Your baby has absolutely no idea what's really going on right now. It's not even a baby. It's not a human everyone. 90 plus percent of people just terminate their pregnancy at this point. And that's what you should do too. And here's all the reasons why. Meanwhile, in literally the next room over sharing a wall with that conversation is a different conversation where you walk in and a doctor says, congratulation your baby. While so much of our culture seems to be dedicated to ending the lives of babies and dehumanizing the most vulnerable among us, I did see something really interesting the other day from my friend Danielle and we'll do a whole video about this. I promise that the only group of people ticking up statistically in having more babies and becoming parents of all the people is conservative women. Which is great because that means all of my friends are pregnant right now and we're having babies. And I have 8 million baby showers to get ready for in the next couple of weeks alone. So I have a long list of all of the best baby things and I know you guys have requested a video on that as well. All of my go to baby products for a first time mom, which we'll be working on soon. But so many of my absolute favorites, Kite Baby, who last year made the cutest national park onesies for babies, Wild Bird, my favorite baby carriers and Baby List, which is my favorite baby registry platform. All are powered through Shopify for their businesses. Millions of businesses across America rely on Shopify every day to power their online stores, including our very own daily wire shop. And as a small business owner, I can tell you that Shopify makes it so much easier than pretty much everything else out there on the Internet. Taking 8 million different tools that would otherwise be on different platforms and putting them all together in the same place for you. It has never been easier to build something of your own with your own small business, especially in supporting the revival of families. And the opportunities are bigger than ever thanks to platforms like Shopify. You can start your business today thanks to the industry's best business partner with Shopify and start hearing by signing up for your $1 per month trial today@shopify.com Isabelle how we have allowed health care to become straight propaganda for whatever's politically convenient or whatever presumably they think the patient wants to hear, I don't know and it's completely unacceptable. But I have to believe that Jesse and his wife, who seem so excited about this pregnancy and so devastated by now the intentional destruction of their baby, probably were not given full informed consent. At the very least, they're becoming parents. They are parents now in a culture that values keeping your dog alive. Even with the brutal consequence of removing both of their kidneys in stage 4 cancer for AS long as humanly possible, but killing your baby as soon as humanly possible, the minute that your baby might present an inconvenience to you and is somehow valued as less human. If you've ever been fortunate to know someone with down syndrome personally, you'll know that someone living with this diagnosis is not any less human or any less worthy in any way. In many ways, they are actually happier and a whole lot more fulfilled than the rest of us are. Last week on the show we were joined by my friend Rachel Campos Duffy, who is a host of Fox News and an author and more importantly, a mom of nine kids, the youngest of whom has down syndrome and her son in law. In response to Jesse's tell All story here posted this this morning, no one in my family suffers from my little sister in law Valentina's existence, including Valentina herself. And for the record, she has had heart and ear surgery that does not make her unworthy of life. I'll be praying for the little soul of the child that you killed. The fact that that is an abnormal anomaly of a response in our culture says everything about how much we have actually devalued people who are living with disabilities today. Despite all of the woke Olympics insisting that everyone is equal and that all human beings are created equal, more often than not, the left does not live that way. Make no mistake about it. Last January of 2025, as I do every year, I joined Students for Life at their annual National Pro Life Summit and I had a big old baby belly and spoke on a panel with other social media content creators about being pro life on the Internet. And that was the first time I met a beautiful young woman named Mia Armstrong who is a kid living with down syndrome today and sharing her experience of why she is worthy of life through her social media account. Just totally randomly, a clip of her speech from that event popped up on my TikTok a few days ago and I saved it wanting to share it with you in some meaningful capacity, not knowing that this was going to be an episode of our show today and I want you to hear what she has to say.
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Ad Break Announcer
People ask me why are you so passionate about ending abortion? I say because I I am living proof that every life has purpose. People with disabilities need to be celebrated, not eliminated. The abortion industry is working hard to make people like me disappear. Here's an idea. Why don't we make them disappear instead?
- [17:39]
Daily Wire Host (Main Speaker)
Mia is funny and adorable and so sweet. I had the time of my life getting to spend the day with her during that conference. But this speaks volumes about where our culture is at. When you start reading through the comments section of this video. Not even posted by Mia, just posted by a random account on Twitter. Oh, okay. Because it's all about you. What is her purpose? Sometimes it's not about you and it's more about the mother. Heartbreak, emoji. It's not about the fetus, though. It's about the mother. This is wrong on so many levels. My for your page betrayed me, girl. Wtf? I'm sorry, but you have to realize it's genuinely not about you and what you think is right or wrong or what you want to do or not want to do. It's about the mu. What the mother wants and thinks. Not everyone wants to have to be a caregiver for their child their whole life, and that is completely valid. This is completely ignorant. I'm crying. What does she even do? Yeah, but, like, the parents don't want to live with children that are having a hard time. I cannot imagine devaluing my daughter Isla to the point of literally ripping her body apart limb by limb or intentionally starving her to death. Which is, by the way, how an abortion works. Look it up. If you don't know how an abortion process actually works because she had a disability or because she was sick or because she needed a little bit of extra care for her whole life. My life as a mom is now dedicated to my daughter for the rest of my life. And it always and forever will be mean. I'm valued any less. That actually means I'm valued a whole lot more because I've been gifted with this awesome responsibility that has completely changed who I am from the inside out. The malignant narcissism that our society is injecting into our generation of young women. To genuinely believe that the slightest inconvenience is worthy of homicide in the most barbaric, destructive, disgusting way possible is unacceptable. And we've got to stop it here as it lies. Guys, I'll leave you with this. Perhaps nobody has advanced the reality of what it's like to know someone living with down syndrome in a more positive way than Shane Gillis, who is one of my favorite comedians. I think he's incredible. I've seen him live once. He's absolutely amazing. And we both are die hard, Notre Dame people. Go, Irish. Shane has an uncle who has down syndrome, and when he talks about his uncle, you can just hear the palpable joy of what it's like, to have this joy and this experience in your family. So few people are gifted with.
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Comedian Shane Gillis
It's funny, when you bring up down syndrome, you can always tell who's never been around it in their lives. You know what I mean? Like, if I tell people, if I'm like, yeah, I have family members with down syndrome. People that have never been around it are always, oh, like, down syndrome's end of the world. Oh, are they okay? Are they doing okay? It's like they're doing better than everybody I know. They're the only dudes I know having a good time pretty consistently. Sorry they're not on Adderall and Anti Anxiety like the rest of us. They're on Capri Suns having a good time. Dude, my Uncle Danny. My Uncle Danny sneaks grilled cheese sandwiches into restaurants just in case they don't serve grilled cheese sandwiches. We don't know where he's getting these. It's the best. It's the best. You'll be out to dinner with him. You look across the table, you see him sneaking at grilled cheese like, yo, where'd you get that chi, Danny? Cause Dad's with him. He's like that. He's been making him at night. I know he is. I'm not making him at night, dad. Then he'll look at you and be like, I'm making them at night.
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Daily Wire Host (Main Speaker)
More often than not, the things that our society disguises as suffering end up being the most joyful experiences we could possibly have. And that's why faith matters ultimately. Because suffering is an opportunity for redemption. It's a pathway through which we are united to God. And service in laying our life down for others is exactly what ultimately God himself did for us on the cross, giving us a chance at eternal life. Life, our hyper comfortable, instant gratification, completely narcissistic society that says you should never be inconvenienced is lying to you. And it's lying to you to the point of us normalizing, celebrating, and actively practicing eugenics and genocide together. We can say, enough. Not for this generation and not for every generation who comes after. It's easy to dunk on people like Jesse Ridgeway and his family because of how completely out of touch with reality this tweet actually was. But. But today I just invite you to pray for him and his family instead. The writing's on the wall. Their child is dead. That's just reality. But forgiveness is possible. And I hope that we can pray for them to experience the full joy of knowing and loving your baby. No matter what obstacles might get thrown in your way.