“Rescue the weak and defend the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” -Psalm 82:4
“Scripture commands men to defend the weak," James Owen eloquently stated on X several days ago. "Not when it’s convenient. Not when it’s popular. Not when everyone agrees. Especially when the person being harmed cannot defend themselves.”
Social cleansing is an ideology where “undesirable” members of society are eliminated. Society rules them undesirable and unnecessary due to cognitive, physical or socio-economic deficiencies. Perhaps these people once contributed to society, but are now elderly, slow, and cognitively impaired with dementia or Alzheimer’s. Perchance they got sick due to chronic illness or cancer and are no longer considered viable. Or maybe they were born with a disability such as Down syndrome, spina bifida, or something else that disqualifies them from being that perfect baby that every parent dreams of conceiving.
Social cleansing has been a plot line in dystopian novels like “The Hunger Games,” where the poor district children were reaped to fight to the death in an arena designed by the Capitol for the pleasure of the wealthy Capitol citizens. But social cleansing is alive and well across the globe and though we don’t like to admit it, it is embraced right here in the United States.
Earlier this year, popular YouTuber Jesse Ridgway and his wife Ashley gleefully announced the upcoming birth of their child. Holding an ultrasound picture of an unborn baby, they looked happy and excited as most parents-to-be would.
Shortly thereafter, they found out they were having a boy. They also found that their child had a 95% chance of having Down syndrome. They then announced the abortion of that boy and lamented their “trauma” at choosing to murder their unborn child. Ridgway declared that Down syndrome isn’t a blessing, People Magazine reported, and full dependency on others for the rest of the child’s life would be rough.
The response on X to his announcement was nothing short of outrage. Followers accused him of killing his unborn child, while working hard to save his dog, whose kidney function is practically gone. They called him a murderer, a father who, at the first sign of inconvenience, chose to sacrifice his child rather than protect him. They compared him to Hitler, choosing to kill the baby because it was inferior and didn’t measure up to societal standards of perfection.
Like a passive man-child, he played the victim, claiming he and his wife are grieving the “loss of their unborn child.” The same child they chose to kill.
It is hard to believe we share the world with people like this.
Ridgeway’s child was in the fifth month in utero. By the end of the fifth month, a baby measures around 10 inches long and weighs a pound, the Pampers website explains. A baby’s sucking reflex is developing, sleep-wake cycles have begun, and movements are more noticeable. A woman begins to feel her baby’s first kicks during this month and develops a baby “bump.”
The abortion process at this stage is nothing less than brutally demonic. It entails a surgical procedure that literally rips the baby limb by limb and vacuums it out of the mother’s uterus. The unborn child can feel pain just like we can. According to the National Right to Life Committee, pain receptors develop at five weeks, and at six weeks in utero, the unborn child responds to touch. Imagine the very person who is supposed to protect an innocent, unborn child ordering his murder instead.
My husband and I married in our early 30s. My pregnancies were considered “advanced maternal age,” as I was pregnant at 34 and 38. My obstetrician was a Christian but told me it was his legal obligation to ask if I would like an amniocentesis with each baby to check for potential disabilities. I declined. It wouldn’t have changed anything. I wanted both our boys regardless of diagnoses or disability.
Ridgway ironically stated on his X account that he and his wife had seen the “darkest side of humanity” through the process of aborting their child and sharing the news on social media. Realistically, the darkest side of humanity consists of fathers and adult men who refuse to protect children – born or unborn. Men who exploit and destroy the most vulnerable among us have abdicated their God-given responsibilities.
Unborn children, disabled or not, have no ability to plead for their own lives or argue their value. The job of a good father is to protect them. Sadly, Jesse Ridgway has shown America what a terrible father truly looks like.
Kristin Landers is a substitute teacher and freelance writer. Landers' previous work includes serving as Communications Director for the Alabama Policy Institute and working for Citizens Against a Legalized Lottery (CALL) to defeat legalized gambling in Alabama.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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