This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
Two hundred fifty years ago this week, our Founding Fathers declared the self-evident truth “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” Most Americans know this phrase by heart. However, <a id="m_4061674854836230776OWA07270982-2b1c-cac0-c335-20e8a2f1ea32" title="https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3960" href="https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3960" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid%3D3960&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1782401549605000&amp;usg=AOvVaw21NXy2lfge7h8Evcxo--EE">polling released</a> by Quinnipiac University just a month ago found that barely one-third of Americans think our nation is “living up to the ideal.”
While many of those polled still firmly believe our nation’s best days are ahead of us, we certainly have work to accomplish, starting with equal rights for the preborn child.
After all, the Declaration of Independence noted our God-given rights in particular order: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our Founders knew that without life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are impossible.
Public discourse on abortion has shifted away from when life begins, especially after Roe v. Wade was overturned. This is a settled fact. Biologists, who Americans agree are the most qualified group to determine when life begins, <a id="m_4061674854836230776OWAf52da664-3608-ac37-f313-a2cf1acb4a11" title="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36629778/" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36629778/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36629778/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1782401549606000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0CfXk2T_ky1aUsJpd6itDy">nearly unanimously agree</a> that life begins at conception. America now faces the question of personhood.
But knowing when human life begins, have the Founders failed to answer the question of personhood for us? By no means. &#8220;All men are created equal,” according to the Declaration, comes without qualification.
As a nation, we have been forced to self-correct time and time again after we have attempted to qualify what it means to be a legal person. Even the Constitution, signed only 11 years after the Declaration, fell from the founding standard of equal rights and accommodated slavery under the Three-Fifths Compromise.
Only three-fifths of the slave population, nearly all of them black Americans, counted when factoring state representation and taxation, and none were given the rights to own land, marry, or be educated, much less vote. Under the law, they were still wrongfully regarded as property, not humans endowed with the inalienable rights our nation should have always recognized.
Not even President Abraham Lincoln’s <a href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation/transcript.html">Emancipation Proclamation</a> nearly 100 years later provided a complete remedy to former slaves. Freed from the institution of slavery itself, black Americans would still suffer under Jim Crow laws and continued racism after Lincoln declared “that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.”
While the 14th Amendment, namely <a id="m_4061674854836230776OWA171b170d-107a-63f4-bf5a-f1ffac3be3cc" title="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/14th-amendment" href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/14th-amendment" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/14th-amendment&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1782401549606000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0HY4aVJ6uArgWEYW-H79ZH">the Equal Protection Clause</a>, established no citizen would be denied “the equal protection of the laws,” another century elapsed before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, upheld enforceability of equal rights for black Americans, including among private individuals and businesses.
Signers of the Constitution also failed to recognize and protect the rights of women, allowing others later to interpret the phrase “all men are created equal” to be qualified by sex. The U.S. movement for women’s suffrage fought for decades for the right to functional equality with men — first among this, the right to vote. It took the 19th Amendment to ensure no citizen was denied the right to vote on the basis of sex.
America has persevered, correcting these tragic distortions of the equal rights our nation was founded upon, but she has still failed to recognize the preeminent right to life that is core to any other rights our nation has historically transgressed.
After 250 years, we have still failed to recognize the personhood of the preborn child, even as the 14th Amendment revived the language of the Declaration, stating “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
Abortion systematically denies preborn children due process. The right to life cannot be qualified by whether a human is born or preborn; otherwise, we undermine the spirit and ideals upon which this nation was founded.
On America’s 250th birthday, we must return to the founding principles we declared self-evident in 1776, first among these, life.
***
Kristan Hawkins is president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, with more than 1,700 groups on middle and high school, college and university, and medical and law school campuses in all 50 states. Follow her <a id="m_4061674854836230776OWAb523a394-8768-772b-322c-3a476b6f473a" title="https://twitter.com/kristanhawkins?lang=en" href="https://twitter.com/kristanhawkins?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/kristanhawkins?lang%3Den&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1782401549606000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0UmNV8M4599irY9MRYD5HY">@KristanHawkins</a> or subscribe to her podcast, <a id="m_4061674854836230776OWAa5e88b98-a0f7-126b-83bc-c62e9d4dd9fb" title="https://kristanhawkins.com/podcast/" href="https://kristanhawkins.com/podcast/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://kristanhawkins.com/podcast/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1782401549606000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2hUh7hfDsZ-YwcUOxRMAap">The Kristan Hawkins Show</a>.
John Mize is CEO of <a id="m_4061674854836230776OWA295399bd-9d2e-31dd-0f5d-9e5d911ab261" title="https://aul.org/" href="https://aul.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://aul.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1782401549606000&amp;usg=AOvVaw113Omgm8oJ76kEd4VT8VK-">Americans United for Life</a>, the nation’s leading pro-life legal advocacy organization.

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The Right To Life America Still Denies

Abortion

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babies

Upstream

On July 4, 2026, American taxpayers celebrate the 250th birthday of our nation, but they&#8217;ll also begin giving money again to the largest abortion organization, Planned Parenthood. That&#8217;s unless Congress acts.
Last summer, Congress included a one-year “defund” provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The law blocked Medicaid payments to certain abortion organizations for “the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment” of the law, July 4, 2025. Simply put,  Planned Parenthood and similar organizations were cut off from federal Medicaid reimbursement for one year. That year is coming to an end.
Some Republican lawmakers apparently think this is a difficult political question. It is not.
The whispered argument in Washington, D.C., is familiar: It is the summer of an election year. Do we really want ads saying, “Congressman X defunded Planned Parenthood”? Won’t Democrats accuse Republicans of taking away women’s health care? Won’t Planned Parenthood spend millions telling voters Republicans are extremists?
Of course they will. That is the point. The attack ads are coming either way.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund is publicly campaigning against House Republicans over defunding. Its own press room announced a new investment of nearly $2 million to keep House Republicans from “defunding” Planned Parenthood, after a prior $1.5 million campaign on the same issue. Its 2026 endorsements page says “the stakes could not be higher,” attacking President Donald Trump and Republicans, warning that anti-abortion lawmakers want to make the Medicaid defund permanent.
Republicans face a choice. They can be attacked for defunding Planned Parenthood after actually defunding Planned Parenthood. Or they can be attacked for defunding Planned Parenthood after quietly letting the money flow again.
The first option is a fight that can be won and is good public policy. The second is political malpractice.
The case against funding Planned Parenthood does not require hyperbole. It requires reading Planned Parenthood’s own documents. Planned Parenthood is not a local charity that stumbled into politics. It is the nation’s largest abortion organization. Its 2024-2025 <a href="https://www.plannedparenthood.org/uploads/filer_public/6a/19/6a191461-a0ad-4ea0-8118-aa9184c24a31/digital-2025-ppfa-annualreport-c3.pdf">annual report</a> lists 434,450 abortions committed, each of which is a precious child killed. The same year, they reported $832 million in government reimbursements and grants. It also lists tens of millions of dollars spent on explicit sexual education, public policy, and advocacy expenses.
The organization says its health centers provide hormone therapy and other “gender-affirming” services. Its website lists estrogen and anti-androgen hormone therapy, testosterone hormone therapy, puberty blockers, surgery referrals, and transition support. Planned Parenthood has been described as the second-largest provider of gender hormone therapies in the United States. And they offer nothing to minors who <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/planned-parenthood-offered-hormones-had-no-answers-when-detransitioner-sought-help-undercover-probe-finds">regret</a> transitioning.
Add it up. Planned Parenthood kills hundreds of thousands of preborn children through abortion, pushes ideological sex education, provides <a href="https://www.liveaction.org/assets/1781815371-planned-parenthood-transgender-agenda-official-copy.pdf">gender-transition services</a>, and then turns around to politically mobilize against the very lawmakers debating whether to subsidize it.
This is the organization some Republicans are considering returning to the taxpayer trough.
There is a saying in politics: You cannot beat something with nothing. True. But there is another lesson Republicans should&#8217;ve learned by now: You cannot appease a political machine into silence.
If Republicans extend the defunding, Planned Parenthood and its allies will say Republicans defunded Planned Parenthood. That would be accurate. Fine. Let the argument be had honestly.
If Republicans fail to extend the defunding, Planned Parenthood and its allies will still say Republicans defunded Planned Parenthood, threatened basic care, and tried to shut down clinics. The ads will not disappear. The mailers will not be recalled. The pro-abortion activists will not send thank-you notes. The only people who will notice the retreat are the voters Republicans count on to knock doors, write checks, make calls, and turn out in ugly political weather.
That is the forgotten political cost here: base demoralization.
For pro-life voters, defunding Planned Parenthood is not the ceiling. It is the floor. It is the least a Republican Congress can do. Many of these voters have accepted that change is hard and comes slowly. They have accepted imperfect bills, narrow margins, Senate rules, court fights, and half measures dressed up as strategy. But asking them to accept nearly a billion taxpayer dollars flowing back to the abortion industry, after Republicans had already stopped it for a year, is a different thing.
Republicans should not fund their opposition.
The ads are coming. The accusations are coming. The headlines are coming. Let’s at least reap the reward while bearing the cost.
Defund Planned Parenthood and defend that defunding without flinching. Better to be attacked for taking the hill than mocked by your own voters for abandoning it.
***
Noah Brandt is the Vice President of Communications &amp; Government Relations at Live Action

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Defunding Planned Parenthood Is Courageous, Appeasing It Is Not

Defund Planned Parenthood

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“Can you help me?” I asked over the phone.
Many conversations occurred, but the response was the same.
“No.”
At first glance, I may seem like an unlikely candidate to conduct an undercover investigation, but as the victim of cross-sex hormones and radical ideology, I feel it is my duty to help expose facilities such as Planned Parenthood.
In April 2026, <a href="https://www.liveaction.org/">Live Action</a> asked me to investigate the organization, known mostly for performing over 400,000 abortions per year. What many don’t know is that Planned Parenthood also specializes in providing dangerous cross-sex hormones, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfoZCtbvdhM">often to minors</a>, without any oversight.
This has become a lucrative business for them. On their website, they state that Planned Parenthood is “proud to provide gender-affirming care” such as hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and social and legal transition support.
But what if you want to de-transition? That’s what I wanted to find out.
Live Action’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMk6wPMp1Sc">latest undercover investigation</a> reveals the truth about Planned Parenthood’s ruthless one-way pipeline that aggressively pushes vulnerable people, including minors, into abortion and “gender-affirming care,” but abandons them when they experience regret, complications, or a desire to reverse course.
Up until last summer, this was paid for by the American people, and if Congress doesn’t extend the one-year defunding measure that was put in place, the destruction will continue on our dime. Taxpayers should not subsidize this evil. Congress and the Trump administration must extend the defunding of Planned Parenthood before the current restrictions expire on July 4, 2026.
Picture this: You’re scared, you’ve made a mistake, and you want to take it back. So you call the only place you think can help.
“Hi. Do you have services to reverse any of the side effects of cross-sex hormones?”
I called Planned Parenthood facilities all over the country. From New York to Alaska, from Idaho to Washington, D.C., the answers were similar. “We don’t provide those services,” and “I don’t have any information on that.”
The responses revealed a troubling pattern. While Planned Parenthood promotes pathways into gender transition, facilities were unable or unwilling to provide any support to detransition. When pressed about other side effects, such as infertility or surgical consequences, they provided nothing.
A few years ago, I went through a similar scenario, and these calls brought back the pain, fear, and helplessness I felt. What a horrific experience for young people to go through. First, they are told this will help them, but when it fails, there is no one to pick up the pieces.
This reaction isn’t surprising and parallels exactly how Planned Parenthood approaches abortion. Decades ago, when Live Action’s Lila Rose went <a href="https://www.liveaction.org/video-series-investigations">undercover</a> at Planned Parenthood facilities, the results were the same. They don&#8217;t provide healthcare. Instead, they prioritize profit over true care.
Planned Parenthood pushes abortion as the only option for women in crisis, often sending them home to commit the abortion alone. Take the life-altering experience of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/DYA1F4kRllm/">Shanyce Thomas</a>, who, after taking the abortion pill at home, returned to the office with severe physical pain, only to be turned away. Days later, Shanyce contracted sepsis, almost dying in a nearby emergency room.
Planned Parenthood has established an evil pattern with its patients. Instead of “do no harm,” they harm and then do nothing. Yet before the defunding, this organization received over $800 million in taxpayer money.
That’s why we must act now. American taxpayers should not fund child abuse or the destruction of preborn children. I urge Congress and President Trump to extend the defunding of Planned Parenthood quickly and indefinitely. America must protect the vulnerable rather than fund those who profit from harming them.
<a href="https://www.liveaction.org/defund-planned-parenthood-2026">Defund Planned Parenthood</a> now.
***
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/chooocole/?hl=en">Chloe Cole</a> is a detransitioner, speaker, and influencer focused on exposing the abuses of childhood gender transition, debunking radical ideology and igniting optimism.

Planned Parenthood clinic entrance

Chloe Cole: Planned Parenthood’s One-Way Pipeline Destroys American Children

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detransitioner

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Four years after the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling ending the bloody legacy of Roe v. Wade, pro-life activists struggle to confront a new challenge that has proved just as difficult: mail-order abortion pills.
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe, many activists believed that states would be empowered to end abortion without the interference of the federal government. Now pro-life leaders say federal regulations and state shield laws are allowing leftist activists and organizations to flood states — where medication abortion is technically illegal — with abortion pills. 
&#8220;We find that the abortion drug has usurped the sovereignty of those states, and that people like Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, and Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, are determining policy for pro-life states, to the extent that now 15,000 children a month are dying, in pro-life states that have strong pro life protections,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said during a Tuesday call attended by The Daily Wire. 
“That is the definition of failure,” she added. 
While red states responded to Roe with trigger laws prohibiting doctors from administering abortions, blue states enacted so-called “shield laws” designed to protect those who illegally ship abortion pills across the country from prosecution. 
Medication abortions, which are the most common abortion method, are facilitated by a woman taking mifepristone and misoprostol. After a pregnant woman takes mifepristone, the unborn child is cut off from the nutrients it needs to survive and is effectively starved to death. Misoprostol is then taken to induce labor and expel the deceased baby from the mother. 
A previous Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-leftist-networks-flood-red-states-with-risky-abortion-pills-with-no-consequences">investigation</a> found that leftist activist groups send foreign-made abortion pills into states with the only requirements being an address and some form of payment online. One <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ordering-abortion-drugs-is-as-easy-shopping-on-amazon?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Abortion+Drugs+Now+Arrive+As+Fast+As+An+Amazon+Package">recent study</a> from the Charlotte Lozier Institute identified eight online pill providers that use so-called shield laws to ship pills into states where medication abortion is technically illegal. 
Many pro-life leaders say the problem could be greatly addressed if the FDA rescinded a Biden-era policy that allowed abortion pills to be dispensed through the mail. The FDA is currently conducting a safety study of the abortion pill and said it won’t adjust policy while the study takes place
Dannenfelser has urged the Justice Department to settle a lawsuit filed by the state of Louisiana against the FDA’s abortion policy. The suit says that the FDA&#8217;s policy prevents Louisiana from enforcing its restrictions on medication abortions. 
“There is a record of this administration certainly challenging injustice, and running straight towards the battle,” she said. “That&#8217;s the kind of courage that we&#8217;ve come to see and desire.”
A spokesman for the Justice Department told The Daily Wire that it asked the judge to give the FDA more time to review its Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy for the abortion drug. 
“On behalf of the FDA, the Justice Department has requested more time from the court for the FDA to complete its review of mifepristone REMS, ensuring our federal health agencies can change their policies without judicial interference,” the spokesman said. “As the Supreme Court recognized in a unanimous ruling less than two years ago, it is the role of the FDA — not the federal courts — to evaluate drug safety data and impose appropriate precautions.”
Largely fueled by the availability of the abortion pill, some estimates indicate that abortions have actually <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/despite-dobbs-more-babies-are-still-being-aborted-in-the-united-states">increased</a> since Dobbs. 
“No, we&#8217;re killing more babies today,” said Bob Vander Plaats, president of the Iowa-based Family Leader, when asked if the pro-life movement is better off than it was four years ago. “We&#8217;re being more creative in how we kill more babies than they were.”
He said that they used to be worried about people traveling out of state to Illinois for abortion but that now the “abortion destinations [are] in your mailbox.”
Grappling with the problems of the abortion pill, some pro-life leaders say the overturn of Roe also created problems for the Left that should not be ignored. 
Shawn Carney, the CEO of 40 Days for Life, said that pro-abortion activists now have to make the case for abortion as a positive good and cannot hide behind Supreme Court precedent.  
“They just had to say, ‘It&#8217;s the Supreme Court, it&#8217;s the law of the land, and that&#8217;s it,’” he told The Daily Wire. “So when Dobbs got rid of Roe, they had to start talking about abortion, and that hasn&#8217;t gone well because they&#8217;ve never had to do that. They never had to have any kind of basic talking points on why abortion is good, what it is as a surgery, how it operates.”
Recently, Rep. Brandon Gill <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rising-gop-star-presses-abortion-advocate-to-name-favorite-method-of-murdering-babies">went viral</a> for exposing the brutal nature of abortion during an exchange with a pro-abortion advocate who repeatedly refused to answer when asked about her preferred method of abortion. 
“The left has never had to articulate why abortion&#8217;s good, and now that they have to, because it&#8217;s state by state, they can&#8217;t,” Carney said.
Carney did say that the mail-order abortion was the largest challenge for the pro-life movement. 
“The mail order abortions, which was started under Biden during COVID, that is the biggest problem right now that we face &#8230; because we don&#8217;t know who&#8217;s getting these pills. We don&#8217;t know how they&#8217;re using them,” he said. 
“We&#8217;re sending these two pills that are designed to kill a baby to just some random apartment. We have no idea who gets it. They don&#8217;t have to sign for it,” he added. 
He also said that the pro-life movement should not underestimate the opportunities to work in deep blue states. While they can’t change laws on the ground, they can change minds and hearts, Carney said. 
Carney also praised President Donald Trump as the most “pro-life president ever” and said he thought criticism of the president’s approach to the issue was “over the top” and “unprofessional.” 
Trump appointed the Supreme Court justices who overturned Dobbs and has taken numerous actions to cut off federal funding for abortions. During his first week back in office, Trump issued pardons to nearly two dozen pro-life activists who were targeted by the Biden administration. 
“This Department of Justice remains committed to advancing President Trump’s pro-life agenda, including through dismissing criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits against peaceful pro-life advocates targeted by the previous administration, and using the FACE Act to protect pro-life pregnancy centers,” a DOJ spokesman told The Daily Wire. 
Some elected Republicans at the state level are embracing a new approach that involves criminalizing abortion for all involved, including the mother. Laws in states like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tennessee-bill-would-classify-abortion-as-murder">Tennessee</a> and South Carolina were proposed this past legislative cycle that would treat abortion as murder.
These kinds of laws, which are opposed by traditional pro-life groups, are supported by groups like the Foundation to Abolish Abortion which says they are the only guaranteed way to end abortion. Foundation to Abolish Abortion President Bradley Pierce told The Daily Wire that laws aimed at going after suppliers were not enough. 
“These abortion regulations cannot be enforced against the established supply chain of abortion pills from overseas, and cannot be reliably enforced domestically unless and until the Supreme Court makes a decision regarding shield laws,” he said. “That is why lawmakers must establish equal protection for preborn babies, applying the laws against homicide within their own jurisdictions against every willful participant in abortion.”
Pierce said that “abolition” bills “deter both the supply and demand of abortions” and are the Christian approach to ending abortion. He says his group will continue to work with state lawmakers on drafting similar legislation. 
“In order to advance abolition bills, we are recruiting and educating state lawmakers, providing them assistance as they draft and introduce equal protection legislation, and making the case for abolition in the public square,” he said. “Other abolitionists across the country are also launching and growing grassroots efforts to elect more Christian lawmakers who champion equal protection.”
While Democrats campaigned heavily on restoring Roe in 2022 and 2024, public opinion is roughly unmoved, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/711401/dobbs-lasting-impact-abortion.aspx">according</a> to Gallup polling. Recent numbers show that roughly 49% of Americans want abortion to be legal in only a few cases (32%) or illegal in all (17%) cases while 48% say abortion should be legal in all (33%) or most (15%) circumstances. 
In 2025, over half of Americans (51%) identified as pro-choice, including 61% of women and 41% of men. In comparison, 43% of Americans said they were pro-life, including 54% of men and 32% of women.

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Four Years After Dobbs, Pro-Life Movement Grapples With Biggest Challenge Yet

Pro-Life Movement

Roe v. Wade's Long And Brutal Legacy

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
Four years after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision seemingly opened the door to saving more lives, abortions are sadly increasing and countless women across America are suffering because of the growth of dangerous mail-order abortion.
The Food and Drug Administration’s rollback of safeguards, which previously ensured women saw a doctor to rule out life-threatening complications before taking abortion drugs, leaves women directly in harm’s way. The lack of safeguards also reinforces the false narrative that the science of mifepristone is settled and that mail-order abortion drugs are safe.
As an ob-gyn and medical director of four pregnancy centers in North Carolina, I regularly see firsthand that nothing could be further from the truth.
Increasingly, women are turning to our centers to get the guidance and medical evaluation they want and know they need when taking abortion drugs. They show up throughout the week with critical questions: Are the drugs they received in the mail real? Can we give them an ultrasound to rule out ectopic pregnancy or verify the gestational age of their pregnancy? Are the side effects they’re experiencing normal?
Women realize the need for ongoing medical care throughout the abortion process, despite the government and abortion advocates’ attempts to convince them they don’t need it. And a growing body of scientific data reflects their concerns about appropriate mifepristone safeguards.
A 2025 report found <a id="m_-7804896960961876211OWAafe2a973-3cd0-316a-3105-02144b43afba" title="https://eppc.org/publication/insurance-data-reveals-one-in-ten-patients-experiences-a-serious-adverse-event/" href="https://eppc.org/publication/insurance-data-reveals-one-in-ten-patients-experiences-a-serious-adverse-event/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://eppc.org/publication/insurance-data-reveals-one-in-ten-patients-experiences-a-serious-adverse-event/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781872097896000&amp;usg=AOvVaw357SpZ2y-nPj_DyGqx6rG4">one in 10</a> women taking the drug will experience a serious adverse event. The FDA’s own data admits that <a id="m_-7804896960961876211OWAceddeb49-d441-4914-811b-79f906ce4ef8" title="https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2023/020687Orig1s025Lbl.pdf" href="https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2023/020687Orig1s025Lbl.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2023/020687Orig1s025Lbl.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781872097896000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2kBIlZOo5UDeqYiKBbG9A2">one out of 25 women</a> taking mifepristone ends up in the emergency room. <a id="m_-7804896960961876211OWA1e36e7ea-34c0-2543-f5a0-b2fda50a444f" title="https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-risks-and-complications-of-chemical-abortion/" href="https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-risks-and-complications-of-chemical-abortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-risks-and-complications-of-chemical-abortion/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781872097896000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0YUdxQNc3wcZ4-pLU5RYv1">Other data</a> reveal that mifepristone has four times the complication rate of surgical abortions and that serious adverse events from mifepristone may be up to <a id="m_-7804896960961876211OWAe28760d1-27b3-ccdd-f9bb-bc7c54c4beea" title="https://eppc.org/publication/insurance-data-reveals-one-in-ten-patients-experiences-a-serious-adverse-event/" href="https://eppc.org/publication/insurance-data-reveals-one-in-ten-patients-experiences-a-serious-adverse-event/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://eppc.org/publication/insurance-data-reveals-one-in-ten-patients-experiences-a-serious-adverse-event/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781872097896000&amp;usg=AOvVaw357SpZ2y-nPj_DyGqx6rG4">22 times higher</a> than previously believed.
Obstetricians and gynecologists across this country treat women who have experienced the negative side effects of mifepristone — hemorrhaging, infections, or even needing a transfusion or emergency surgery. The drug devastates women physically and <a id="m_-7804896960961876211OWAb47d60e6-7217-1f93-68ed-b4c1914040ec" title="https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-abortion-and-mental-health/" href="https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-abortion-and-mental-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-abortion-and-mental-health/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781872097896000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1RQNli77d0c3SvbR2rQ9Wr">emotionally</a>. I remember a patient who called and shared how horrible her experience was with chemical abortion in her dorm room. She told me, “I am going to need to see a therapist.”
The larger medical community refuses to acknowledge the growing evidence against mifepristone because it fears this will undermine its avid support for unrestricted abortion. Leading <a id="m_-7804896960961876211OWA6251b325-6ee0-4854-69e3-b514939170eb" title="https://www.acog.org/-/media/project/acog/acogorg/files/advocacy/amicus-briefs/2026/20260223_louisiana-usfda.pdf?rev=8a3aa82f29e3430f847dea56d7f65b0d" href="https://www.acog.org/-/media/project/acog/acogorg/files/advocacy/amicus-briefs/2026/20260223_louisiana-usfda.pdf?rev=8a3aa82f29e3430f847dea56d7f65b0d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.acog.org/-/media/project/acog/acogorg/files/advocacy/amicus-briefs/2026/20260223_louisiana-usfda.pdf?rev%3D8a3aa82f29e3430f847dea56d7f65b0d&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781872097896000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2px2aAUfIiDIMNsZ1QByhF">medical groups</a> such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists continue promoting the lie that a visit to the ER after taking mifepristone isn’t serious or that the science on mifepristone’s safety and effectiveness is “<a id="m_-7804896960961876211OWA0777e898-67cc-866e-925c-00bbc3281a77" title="https://www.rev.com/transcripts/senate-hearing-on-abortion-drugs" href="https://www.rev.com/transcripts/senate-hearing-on-abortion-drugs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.rev.com/transcripts/senate-hearing-on-abortion-drugs&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781872097896000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1_VsKmHpm0jPZtb6xdG6DJ">longstanding and settled</a>.&#8221;
The women showing up at my clinics aren’t buying these lies. They are rightly concerned that they don’t have medical accompaniment when taking dangerous, high-risk drugs.
And as a medical professional with 28 years of experience working in women’s health, and who completed Ph.D. training in methods of scientific research, I am shocked at this distortion from fellow medical professionals.
The concept of questioning science and challenging assumptions has produced countless discoveries in medicine over the years.
I’ve witnessed many instances where the prevailing scientific consensus was later refined or even overturned after further studies. For example, medical professionals long believed that stress produced stomach ulcers, but further inquiry revealed that a <a id="m_-7804896960961876211OWA2c7882b9-9e6d-256f-f200-8980034a691b" title="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01206-6/abstract" href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01206-6/abstract" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01206-6/abstract&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781872097896000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2vpQn_afaaa2CWfe63TNAS">bacteria</a> called Helicobacter pylori was also related to the development of ulcers. Outdated ideas on <a id="m_-7804896960961876211OWAaa3d8696-15ee-1639-0072-bddc69288e92" title="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4026979/" href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4026979/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4026979/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781872097896000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3Y-ObQtsrjRN22_7ZGJYZ8">neuroplasticity</a> crumbled under renewed investigations revealing that contrary to popular belief, adult brains can reorganize and form new neural connections throughout life.
And in the field of obstetrics and gynecology, new studies have challenged prior knowledge and led to improvements in areas such as preventing preterm labor, labor after cesarean sections, and more. Rather than stifling investigation in each of these cases, scientists and medical professionals celebrated them as evidence that scientific discovery was ameliorating our health.
The pro-abortion medical community’s refusal to question or even consider the possibility that women may be <a id="m_-7804896960961876211OWAef1ea58b-de84-548c-c309-8b75cc58b5f1" title="https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-risks-and-complications-of-chemical-abortion/" href="https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-risks-and-complications-of-chemical-abortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-risks-and-complications-of-chemical-abortion/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781872097897000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1Q76X4xBM44uxIdouSxS50">harmed</a> by mifepristone is incredibly telling. Our responsibility as physicians is to minimize harm. The refusal to examine evidence honestly, particularly when data and experience reveal that abortion drugs endanger women, is a failure of our duty as healers to protect the women we care for.
The purpose of medicine is health and healing. It is ultimately the responsibility of the physician to protect our patients, not a narrative. Women deserve a medical community that examines evidence with humility and curiosity. In medicine, when complication rates or serious adverse events occur after clinical trials in real-world patients, we carefully reassess their use. Mifepristone should be no exception.
Obstetrics and gynecology is the most unique specialty in medicine because we care for two patients at the same time: a mom and her baby. Dismissing the risks of mifepristone and the plethora of data on its dangers exposes not only a bias but also a failure to care for both patients.
Women deserve rigorous medical guidance grounded in evidence, not politics. Medicine can and must do better.
***
Dr. Susan Bane is a board-certified ob-gyn who serves as the medical director of four pregnancy centers in North Carolina. She is chair of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists Action.

GettyImages-2206981895

The Abortion Pill Story The Medical Establishment Doesn’t Want To Tell

Dobbs

Health

A pro-union bill making its way through Congress with Republican support faces opposition from Christian business leaders who argue it could be used to advance a pro-abortion and transgender agenda without the consent of workers or employers.
The <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5408/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Faster Labor Contracts Act</a>, which passed the House last week with support from 210 Democrats and 20 Republicans, stipulates that either side in a labor dispute may request federal mediation after a 90 day period. If an agreement is not reached within 30 days of federal mediation, the conflict goes to a 3-person arbitration panel that is then empowered to impose labor contracts that can be binding on the parties for up to two years.
The Senate version of the bill is sponsored by outspoken social conservative Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) who says that the bill will help workers assert their rights against woke corporations. But according to the Christian Employers Alliance, the bill could have significant <a href="https://x.com/JoinCEANow/status/2064348783203508259" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ramifications</a> for religious workers and employees.
The organization, which successfully <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/christian-employers-alliance-v-us-equal-employment-opportunity-commission-i/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defeated</a> a Biden-era mandate for employers to pay for transgender procedures, sent a letter to House lawmakers last week urging them to oppose the measure. They say that the bill would allow arbiters to embed woke provisions into binding contracts without final consent from workers or employers.
“Christian employers are increasingly concerned that collective bargaining agreements are being used to advance provisions involving abortion coverage, gender-transition procedures, DEI mandates, pronoun policies, and other ideological requirements that directly implicate matters of conscience and religious belief,” Christian Employers Alliance President Margaret Iuculano told lawmakers in a letter obtained by The Daily Wire.
Iuculano told The Daily Wire that her organization is not opposed to the measure because it directly mandates any of the policies in question, but because of the binding arbitration provision that kicks in after 120 days if the two sides can&#8217;t make an agreement.
&#8220;Because the legislation relies on binding arbitration to impose first contracts when negotiations fail, provisions of this nature could become part of an arbitrator-imposed agreement without the consent of either the employer or the employees,&#8221; she told The Daily Wire. &#8220;For Christian employers, that raises serious concerns about religious liberty, conscience protections, healthcare freedom, and the ability of faith-based organizations to govern their workplaces consistent with their sincerely held beliefs.&#8221;
A Hawley spokesman told The Daily Wire that these objections were “absurd” and a way for big business to target the proposal.
“These absurd allegations about a strong bill to protect working people just show that giant corporations are desperate to kill legislation that would help American workers while they invest billions in DEI insanity,” a Hawley spokesman said. “Senator Hawley’s bill aims to put a shot clock on labor negotiations to stop corporations like Amazon from dragging their feet after workers win a vote to unionize fair and square.”
Hawley’s spokesman said that existing federal law protected religious employers.
“Federal law already shields religious employers, and under this bill any third-party arbitrators are mutually chosen by the bargaining parties, not by the government,” the spokesman said.
The terms imposed by the bill would allow the union and the employer to select one representative for arbitration. They would then have an opportunity to select a third arbitrator agreed to by both sides. If they can not agree on a third party within 14 days, the federal government would put in place the third person.
The Senate version is cosponsored by Republican Senators Roger Marshall (KS) and Bernie Moreno (Ohio) alongside 14 Democratic lawmakers.
Opponents of the bill argue that unions have historically promoted left-wing social policies, policies that could be imposed during the arbitration process.
For example, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the unions supporting the legislation, once <a href="https://teamster.org/2019/11/teamsters-lgbtq-caucus-holds-annual-meeting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promoted</a> a “Pride at Work” guidance <a href="https://teamster.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/caucuslgbtqprideatwork.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">document</a> steeped in transgender ideology that features the so-called “gender-bread person.”
The document features a section called “Five Reasons LGBTQ Working People Need a Union,” including that “people in unions help ensure LGBTQ working people have their healthcare needs met,” including “gender confirmation surgery.”
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1118015" style="width: 1526px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1118015" class="wp-image-1118015 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-17-at-9.42.55-AM.png" alt="" width="1516" height="962" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-17-at-9.42.55-AM.png 1516w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-17-at-9.42.55-AM-300x190.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-17-at-9.42.55-AM-908x576.png 908w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-17-at-9.42.55-AM-768x487.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1516px) 100vw, 1516px" />Teamster handout</div>
Some affiliate groups, such as the Teamsters Local 117 in Washington, proudly <a href="https://www.teamsters117.org/abortion_rights_are_worker_rights" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declare</a> that “abortion rights are worker rights.”
“In America today, I cannot think of a single healthcare procedure that elected officials have used the legislative process to take choice away from men. Abortion rights are worker’s rights. The labor movement must take a critical stand and continue the fight for equal access to healthcare for all its members,” the union said after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Kara Deniz, the assistant director of communications for the Teamsters, argued that complaints about abortion and transgender funding were attempts by companies to &#8220;misdirect&#8221; about the legislation.
&#8220;This is a complete misdirection to basically facilitate their goal to try to stampede and block a bill that is having tremendous bipartisan support. Republicans and Democrats are supporting this bill,&#8221; she told The Daily Wire. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think they even have those concerns. To be quite honest, I think that these &#8216;concerns&#8217; are being brought up on behalf of the corporations.&#8221;
Deniz said the goal of the Teamsters was to cut down on the lengthy negotiating process and would not impact the issues of abortion or transgenderism.
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s very unchristian to stand in the way of such legislation when it&#8217;s going to help people afford to live, and afford to be able to have a contract, and to not get hurt and injured on the job and be unsafe for 460 plus days because the employer refuses to give a contract,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I think that&#8217;s incredibly unchristian.&#8221;
The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States, has created model collective bargaining language demanding healthcare coverage for abortion and transgender procedures, including from out-of-state providers.
“All health plans offered to bargaining unit members shall cover comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services, including contraceptives, abortion services (procedural and pharmaceutical), and gender-affirming care,” the <a href="https://aflcio.org/sites/default/files/2022-09/Abortion%20Model%20CBA%20Language.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">model language</a> says.
Similarly, the Service Employees International Union has called for local unions to bargain for so-called trans-inclusive healthcare.
Thomas Beck, a labor lawyer who previously served on the Federal Labor Relations Authority, said that the worries of organizations like the Christian Employers Alliance are legitimate.
“I think it&#8217;s absolutely a concern,” he told The Daily Wire, noting the track record of unions pushing for abortion and transgender coverage. “They&#8217;re all proudly staking out these very progressive positions on some of the highest profile social issues of our time. And essentially they&#8217;re making it clear that they want to argue for these protections in collective bargaining agreements.”
Beck believes that arbitrators would see abortion coverage or transgender procedure coverage as an easy win to hand unions and that the end result of the legislation would lead to a binding government regulation imposed via arbitration.
Vinnie Vernuccio, the president of the Institute for the American Worker, said one problem with the legislation is that union members did not get a final vote on the labor contract with it went to arbitration.
“It&#8217;s going a bridge way too far to say the remedy for contract negotiations taking too long is to invite government bureaucrats and take away the ability of workers to vote on a contract,” he told The Daily Wire.
Hawley’s spokesman said the broader objections to the bill were a cloak for woke corporations to oppose worker-friendly legislation. The spokesman noted that employers get to be part of the process in selecting the representatives to oversee arbitration.
“It’s ironic that some of the biggest opponents of this legislation also promote the trans flag on their websites. Senator Hawley is fighting for the American worker, rather than the same Big Business who stands with the radical left to push woke, transgender ideology,” the spokesman said.
When asked about concerns with the bill, Reagan McCarthy, a spokeswoman for Moreno, told The Daily Wire that the senator was “proud to be a part of the legislative effort to protect working families. Working class Americans helped elect President Trump, and Republicans must be the party of workers, not Wall Street.”
Some corporations have moved to push for abortion coverage without union pressure. Corporate giants like Amazon, Apple, and JPMorgan all came forward after the Roe decision and announced that they would pay for women to travel to end the life of their unborn child.
Before passing, the proposal likely would have to go before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee, which could be an uphill battle with Republican control of the committee. It would also need to pick up around ten more Republican supporters to get past the filibuster and would need President Donald Trump&#8217;s signature.

Motor City Pride Parade

Republicans And Union Allies Could Force Abortion On Christian Employers, Critics Warn

Josh Hawley

Labor Unions

Senate

transgender surgery

Four years ago, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson, ending nearly 50 years of Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.
Roe had been based on an absurd lie, one that turned the American founding on its head. The Declaration of Independence, the very first words our nation spoke, states unequivocally that every human being is equal from the moment of his or her creation, and is endowed by God with an inalienable right to life that all governments are bound to protect.
Roe read the Constitution in the opposite direction, requiring states and the federal government to actively deny the right to life to unborn human beings. As a result, more than 60 million American children were killed.
Dobbs ended that era of constitutional interpretation, but it didn’t stop the deaths. Since the end of Roe, abortions in America are up, not down, rising most recently to more than 1.1 million each year. That’s about 200,000 more than in the final years of Roe v. Wade.
One reason for the increase: Biden changed federal regulations of abortion-inducing drugs, as part of what courts have characterized as an intentional strategy to undermine pro-life states. Now, activists in blue states can prescribe and ship these pills to “patients” in pro-life states whom they have never even seen or examined — including <a href="https://sbaprolife.org/latest-news/abortion-drugs-fuel-abuse-the-women-poisoned-against-their-will">abusers</a> who are poisoning women with these abortion drugs or coercing them into taking them.
Most Congressional Republicans and most pro-life states have called for the Biden rules to be scrapped. It’s easy to understand the urgency: many states with strong pro-life laws on the books now have more abortions within their borders each year than they did under Roe v. Wade.
But the federal government has been slow to act and is actively fighting lawsuits trying to force a change. Why? Because many federal officials feel that, after Dobbs, protecting life is no longer their problem.
Some still mistakenly believe that the Constitution forbids the federal government from recognizing or protecting unborn children’s right to life in any way. Because of this, they view federal pro-life action with deep suspicion. States, they argue, are the only ones with the authority to protect the right to life — and should be free to choose whether to protect it or whether to attack and deny it without any limitation: even up until birth, or even across state lines.
This maximalist “states-only” position simply isn’t what the Constitution, or Dobbs, says. The Constitution allows states to protect life, but it doesn’t forbid the federal government from trying to do so, too. The 14th Amendment, in fact, explicitly charges Congress with the duty and authority to ensure the equal protection of the laws and to ensure that no state deprives anyone of life, liberty, or property without due process.
Contrary to a pure states-only view, the Dobbs decision left every existing federal protection of the unborn — including a federal ban on partial-birth abortion — completely intact. As Justice Kavanaugh wrote, the Court, by finding that the Constitution didn’t require abortion, simply returned authority to the people’s elected representatives and the normal democratic process, both in the states and in Congress.
America was founded a quarter-millennium ago on the claim that legitimate governments must secure the God-given rights of every human being.
The party of Lincoln was founded 78 years later to ensure that those rights were protected federally to the maximum extent possible. The signature achievement of America after the Civil War was to put those protections squarely and clearly into the United States Constitution, and to give Congress the authority to enforce them.
The states-only philosophy is the legacy, not of Lincoln or the Founders, but of Jefferson Davis and Stephen A. Douglas. For them, as with the states-only maximalists of today, the height of the American ideal was to give each state perfect freedom to define its own “domestic institutions” however it liked. Whether these institutions were compatible with the God-given rights espoused in the Declaration was deemed immaterial.
We should acknowledge, with Lincoln, that this is a recipe for tyranny under the guise of freedom. The Founders had meant what they said, and they were right. All governments are bound to recognize the inherent and equal rights of every human being. There is no moral right for any government to restrict those basic rights to one favored class of people.
Thanks to Lincoln’s efforts and the Fourteenth Amendment, there’s no Constitutional right for any state to do so, either. Four years after Dobbs and 250 years after the Declaration, it’s time for our leaders to reject the lie that lies at the heart of Roe and to affirm, once again, that all men really are created equal.
***
Marjorie Dannenfelser serves as president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. She has been called “the woman who brought down Roe.”

abortion case

From The Declaration To Dobbs: The Unfinished Pro-Life Work

Constitution

Dobbs v. Jackson

YouTube star Jesse Ridgway doubled down on his and his wife’s decision to end the life of their unborn child because of a Down syndrome diagnosis, lashing out at those who said they should have kept the baby. 
“We stand by it. No amount of hate and crazy death threats or calling me a murderer is going to make me change my mind,” he said in a recent video uploaded to social media. “Abortion is legal. We&#8217;re in the state of New Jersey, and you can, you&#8217;re within your right to do that.”
The video came after Ridgway received massive backlash, including from House Speaker Mike Johnson, after he announced to his 350,000 followers on X he and his wife aborted their child because they didn’t want to raise a child with Down syndrome. 
“As long as you can live with yourself and you&#8217;re happy with the decisions that you&#8217;re making and the intention is pure, you&#8217;ll be OK,” he said. “If you&#8217;re getting angry at random strangers on the Internet, on social media, I would encourage you to take a look at your own life.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Nobody is coming to save you. <a href="https://t.co/qGNEJLqEq4">pic.twitter.com/qGNEJLqEq4</a>
— Jesse Ridgway (@McJuggerNuggets) <a href="https://x.com/McJuggerNuggets/status/2065537990521147467?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ridgway added that he and his wife hoped to have a “clean pregnancy” next time, meaning the child would not have a disability because he so “desperately” wanted to be a parent. 
He said people should “stop being so bitter at some couple who&#8217;s just had an abortion, and is making the best decision possible for their family. Just because you don&#8217;t believe in whatever we believe in, or whatever, doesn&#8217;t mean you can&#8217;t still be supportive, and people can&#8217;t still be sad.&#8221;
“Think whatever you want,” he added. “I’ll be enjoying my life.”
Between 350,000 and 400,000 Americans have Down syndrome, meaning they were born with an extra chromosome. When polled, these individuals <a href="https://lozierinstitute.org/improving-joyful-lives-societys-response-to-difference-and-disability/">consistently say</a> they are satisfied with their lives and are happy they were born. 
Studies generally show that at least 67% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in the United States are aborted. Very few states have protections against disability-based abortions. 
Speaker Johnson criticized Ridgway’s decision, saying it showed a sick culture. 
“Because God made us all in His image, it means EVERY SINGLE PERSON has inestimable DIGNITY and VALUE — and our value is not related in any way to the color of our skin, what zip code we live in, what our talents are, our health condition, or any other factor,” Speaker Johnson <a href="https://x.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/2062864877471797445">said</a>. “Our value is inherent, because it is given to us by our loving Heavenly Father.”

2018 Streamys Premiere Awards And Streamy Awards Nominee Reception

YouTuber Doubles Down On Decision To Murder Unborn Child, Vows To Try Again

Down Syndrome

Social Issues

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
After hearing about the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/he-thought-he-was-defending-abortion-instead-he-exposed-it">infamous couple</a> who just aborted their unborn baby with Down syndrome, some pro-lifers are turning against genetic testing. The argument goes something like this: Prenatal testing enables eugenics, so conservatives and Christians shouldn’t do it.
&#8220;Fetal genetic testing and tests to ensure a &#8216;perfect&#8217; baby are doing more harm than good,&#8221; <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DZNR_NlocKL/?hl=en">concluded</a> Sadie Gannett, a registered nurse with over half a million followers on Instagram.
&#8220;Both my pregnancies I’ve denied the genetic [test] because to me it wouldn’t make a difference. Baby will still be loved, baby will still be carried to full term and given a chance of life,&#8221; <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DZNlYOvRKaO/?hl=en">said</a> another influencer.
One Gospel Coalition article from 2022 similarly discouraged prenatal testing, <a href="https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/christian-prenatal-genetic-testing/">arguing</a> &#8220;we should carefully weigh our motives and consider if such testing is truly prudent.&#8221;
I understand exactly where this response comes from. I, like many pro-life conservatives, was outraged by the termination of YouTubers Jesse and Ashley Ridgway’s unborn child. The Ridgways decided to end the life of their child because he, diagnosed with Down syndrome in utero, was not the healthy, normal child for which they had hoped. Eugenics, yes. Terrible, absolutely.
But is prenatal testing the culprit? No.
Prenatal, newborn, or maternal genetic screening should not be held responsible for the evil that is eugenics and which is enabled by the pro-choice ideology. The pro-choice movement has turned what should be a lifesaving tool for parents into a deadly litmus test for babies “perfect enough” to be allowed to continue to live. It is vital that we reclaim genetic testing, whether prenatal, maternal, or newborn genetic screening, and bring it back within the rightful umbrella of life-affirming medical practices as all medical care should be. 
My reasons for this are personal. Last November, our neighbors’ two-year-old daughter, Rosie, stopped walking unassisted and began waking up with pain in her legs at night. After rounds of testing, our neighbors received the news that is every parent’s worst fear. Their daughter is suffering from a rare genetic disease called Metachromatic leukodystrophy, or MLD, which is always fatal after symptoms began to manifest. 
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/cheering4rosie?igsh=OTFpbGl1cXp1OGxl">Rosie</a>, who met all of her developmental milestones up until about 18 months old, will be robbed of everything in mere months&#8217; time. It is difficult for me even to catalogue what will happen to their sweet child: Her muscles will slowly stop working, and she will lose the ability to move. At the time of writing this, she can no longer walk, and she had a feeding tube put in three weeks ago. Then she will lose her ability to speak. Her memories will go, and she will suffer from childhood dementia. She will eventually slip into a vegetative state, and, depending on how long it takes for a significant bodily system to give out, she will remain in a vegetative state until she dies. 
She will suffer the unimaginable. And for her parents and siblings, well, it&#8217;s an understatement to say that this will change them forever. 
But here’s the thing: Genetic testing would have spared Rosie this terrible suffering and would have saved her life. 
MLD is caused by a gene mutation that can only be meaningfully corrected with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gene-editing-can-save-your-life-and-countless-babies">gene therapy</a> if the disease is caught before nerve damage begins to manifest. Unfortunately, by the time children like Rosie begin showing symptoms, the nerve damage is already too far along, and treatment is not lifesaving. Gene therapy involves high-intensity chemotherapy, which can accelerate disease progression and death in symptomatic kids. Comprehensive genetic testing is vital in catching MLD and diseases like it and treating them in early infancy before it’s too late.
Though the treatment process is arduous, it is nothing compared to the terrible progression of the disease, and there are now many children living normal, healthy lives with MLD thanks to stem cell gene therapy administered as soon as possible. Currently, MLD is not included in routine prenatal screening, but an extra comprehensive genetic panel can be requested and taken by the mother to determine if the baby is at risk of inheriting the disorder and others like it, or the newborn can be screened for MLD immediately post birth. In fact, last year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/secretary-kennedy-adds-duchenne-muscular-dystrophy-metachromatic-leukodystrophy-to-newborn-screenings.html">recommended</a> that MLD be added to newborn screenings.
According to Rosie’s mother, “The regret of our lives will always be that we didn’t realize it was important to do extra genetic testing.” 
My heart breaks with her because I also did not understand how lifesaving genetic testing can be. Our neighbors’ little girl would be running around with her peers right now if her parents had known that she carried the deadly gene mutation. She’d be facing a long road of treatment, not slow physical and cognitive degeneration and death. This comes back to the fact that most parents don’t see genetic testing, especially non-routine or extra testing, as potentially lifesaving for their children. Rosie’s parents didn’t realize this, or they’d have done it in a heartbeat. 
And that’s often the case with pro-life moms like myself. I also did not understand how valuable genetic testing can be until our neighborhood was rocked by this little girl’s diagnosis. When I explained to my midwife why I wanted to do extra comprehensive genetic testing during my current pregnancy (specifically stressing that it would not change the outcome of the pregnancy), she told me that there are many such diseases like MLD, that new gene therapies are continually being developed to combat the diseases, and that, like with our neighbor, most rely on immediate diagnosis in order to save the baby’s life.
I am carrying my fourth baby, and I only just understood how lifesaving genetic testing can be because of our neighbor’s situation. Had I not known to ask my midwife because of our neighbor, I never would have known how cruel some of these genetic diseases are, the evolving breakthroughs in medical treatments, or that the earlier the diseases are caught the higher the chance of a cure is.
But in the pro-life camp, we are not only largely unaware of how important these kinds of tests can be, but pro-life mothers are particularly wary of genetic screening for multiple reasons. According to one mom in my mother’s group, made up of like-minded pro-life women, she refused genetic testing because she was under the mindset that it “wouldn’t change anything” and that she would cherish her baby regardless of genetic condition. Another mom said she avoided it because she wanted to avoid unwanted stress and to trust God with her pregnancy. 
The crunchy movement is at play here as well. Some mothers would rather have an all “natural” pregnancy and birth experience, so they do not do any kind of genetic testing to maintain as natural of a pregnancy and postpartum experience as possible. And then there are the more sinister reasons that pro-life mothers avoid genetic testing; one mom said she avoided genetic testing because, shockingly, her doctor told her that they would not attempt to stop early labor if it resulted from certain genetic conditions.
Pro-life parents see genetic testing as, at best, a tool to help inform parents of how to care for their child, or, at worst, a litmus test for selective abortions, which rightfully generates their animosity toward it. Too often genetic screening is a tool of eugenics and not advertised in the lifesaving manner that it should be. 
That needs to change. When used to help prepare birth experiences or enhance newborn care, genetic testing appeals to most pro-life parents. But almost all mothers I spoke with did not understand, as I didn’t, that genetic testing can allow families to diagnose diseases that would otherwise go unnoticed until it is too late, and that the earlier the diagnosis the better the outcome. We cannot let genetic testing, which can save the lives of precious children like my neighbor’s child, become the scapegoat for the real culprit: a disregard for human life that is larger than, but certainly encompasses, ableism.  
Consider the mother who was told that care would be withheld should her baby test positive for certain genetic conditions. We as mothers must hold doctors accountable for this kind of blatant disregard for human life. We should seek out pro-life minded medical professionals (I have had a lot more luck with finding like-minded midwives vs. obstetricians) who we feel assured would do anything in their power to save babies regardless of how grim their prognosis. We need to demand that doctors promote genetic testing as the lifesaving tool that it can be, not as a litmus test for the “normal” baby.
We as pro-life mothers need to continue to speak out over its misuse (the rightful outrage over Ridgways, for instance). Our goal should always be that the sacredness of all persons, regardless of gestational age, dependency, health, socioeconomic status, disability, or any other qualifier, be promoted and safeguarded through life-affirming healthcare, whether that be fertility, midwifery, OBGYN, or newborn care.
And if the pro-life movement is to apply this kind of comprehensive, life-affirming approach to maternal-fetal medicine, we cannot shy away from the new advancements in genetic disease testing and treatment. Because lives like Rosie’s are way too precious not to fight for. 
***
Rebekah Bills is a freelance writer and mother of three. She previously served as a civilian intelligence officer in the Defense Intelligence Agency.

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Why Pro-Life Parents Should Think Twice Before Skipping Genetic Testing

Genetic Screening

Students typically go to college to pursue higher education grounded in eternal principles, aiming to understand the good, the true, and the beautiful. Now they can also get abortions.
Many schools across the country are providing abortion pills on campus for students, allowing them to kill their babies still in the womb. What’s even more depressing is the fact that many of these institutions are being forced to offer these life-ending drugs due to state law.
How do pill abortions work? As Planned Parenthood <a href="https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/abortion/the-abortion-pill">describes</a>, it starts with the patient taking mifepristone, which blocks necessary nutrients from getting to the “pregnancy.” Then a second pill, misoprostol, is taken shortly afterward, which causes cramping and bleeding to empty the woman’s uterus, describing it as “very similar to an early miscarriage.”
It should be noted that most abortions in the formal healthcare system are now carried out through “medication,” with <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/2024/03/medication-abortion-accounted-63-all-us-abortions-2023-increase-53-2020?utm_source=chatgpt.com">63%</a> of all abortions in 2023 done by pill, adding up to 642,700. For a student, this would likely be done in a shared dorm or restroom, with little to no support.
Despite the fact that this “treatment” aims at killing a child and has also been proven to occasionally have injurious, if not deadly, consequences for the women using it, the Colorado legislature has deemed this “necessary” for student safety.
For example, Colorado Governor Jared Polis recently signed <a href="https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/HB26-1335">House Bill 1335</a>, requiring academic institutions with a health center to provide abortion medication to all students starting in August of next year. Although there is a religious exemption clause, many schools will begin stocking shelves with these drugs.
However, this practice has been developing for almost a decade. In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the first <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB24">bill</a> of this kind, mandating that all public colleges in California offer the drugs. It applies to over 30 campuses and hundreds of thousands of female students.
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) advertises this service <a href="https://www.studenthealth.ucla.edu/services/medab">online</a>, telling students, “Medication abortion services are now available at The Ashe Center for pregnancies up to 70 days (10 weeks).” Littered with Planned Parenthood graphics, instructions, and directions to the clinic, it aims to make killing one’s child as supportive as possible. <a href="https://studenthealth.ucr.edu/womens-health">UC Riverside</a> even states “medications will be mailed directly to the patient for secure delivery,” with virtual follow-ups scheduled shortly after.
In fiscal year 2024-2025 alone, the 10 University of California campuses facilitated a total of 297 chemical abortions, receiving $2,492,326.63 in reimbursements from the College Student Right to Access Act grant, according to the <a href="https://women.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/96/2025/12/2025-College-Student-Right-to-Access-Act-FINAL.pdf">2025 Report</a> of the California Commission on the Status of Women &amp; Girls.
New York is even worse, as a <a href="https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S1213/amendment/B">bill</a> signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in 2023 mandates “every campus of the state university of New York and every campus of the city university of New York provide access to medication abortion.” Senate Bill S1214B provides this access to campuses, including the Fashion Institute of Technology, which is <a href="https://www.fitnyc.edu/about/required-information/right-to-know/enrollment-data.php">81% female</a>.
As of 2022, Massachusetts has also signed an <a href="https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/H5090">extreme bill</a> establishing a separate fund called the Public University Health Center Sexual and Reproductive Health Preparation Fund to assist in medication abortion readiness. It is administered by the Department of Public Health and tasked with providing grants to pay for the cost of direct and indirect medication abortion readiness, prioritizing schools. It pays for elements including equipment, facility and security upgrades, telehealth services, staff abortion training, and billing specialist consultation.
It applies to public community colleges, state universities, and the University of Massachusetts campuses. <a href="https://www.liveaction.org/news/mandated-taxpayer-funded-college-campuses-abortion-drugs">Live Action News</a> discovered that one of these campuses, Salem State University, <a href="https://ask.salemstate.edu/kb/medication-abortion-salem-state">offers</a> the abortion pill up to 11 weeks of pregnancy, which is after the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/drugs/postmarket-drug-safety-information-patients-and-providers/information-about-mifepristone-medical-termination-pregnancy-through-ten-weeks-gestation">FDA-approved</a> 10-week gestational limit.
Another state to pass similar legislation is Illinois, whose Governor JB Pritzker signed <a href="https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/BillStatus?DocTypeID=HB&amp;DocNum=3709&amp;GAID=18&amp;SessionID=114&amp;LegID=162529&amp;emci=5882b2bd-4e7f-f011-b484-6045bdeb7413&amp;emdi=ea000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&amp;ceid=%257B%257BContactsEmailID%257D%257D">House Bill 3709</a>, requiring each public institution of higher education with student health services to provide students with access to medication abortion, which started this past school year.
These services can be provided through health services, telehealth, or other licensed external providers, but all schools with a pharmacy must provide them in person. It names schools, including the University of Illinois, Illinois State University, and Northeastern Illinois University, as participants.
Other states, such as Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland, and Vermont, have <a href="https://www.liveaction.org/news/mandated-taxpayer-funded-college-campuses-abortion-drugs">less stringent laws</a>, requiring “abortion access” in broader terms.
On the West Coast, <a href="https://senatedemocrats.wa.gov/nobles/2026/01/15/nobles-bill-expanding-access-to-medication-abortion-at-public-colleges-universities-heard-in-committee/">Washington</a> is currently considering a <a href="https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5826&amp;Year=2025&amp;Initiative=False">bill</a> that would “require public colleges and universities to provide students with access to medication abortion services through student health centers or coordinated referral and telehealth options.” It would start in the 2027-2028 academic year and apply to public four-year institutions, community and technical colleges, and other public postsecondary institutions.
While legislation like this might come as a surprise to some, I don’t see why.
It’s been evident for years that most of modern academia is a hotbed for leftist ideology and liberal professors. And since abortion is one of the top priorities of the modern Left and is advertised as a human right and a freeing act, it slowly seeps into students’ malleable minds.
The numbers show that in 2025, there were an estimated 1.1 million abortions provided by U.S. clinicians, according to the pro-abortion <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states">Guttmacher Institute.</a> Most importantly, the abortion rate for women aged 15-44 was 16.7 per 1,000, a stunning sum.
The more colleges discuss the topic and masquerade taking a life-ending drug as a responsible act, the more of it you will have, and the greater the uproar will be when it is outlawed.
Abortion has even infiltrated segments of American culture, with movies like Unpregnant (2020) depicting abortion as a necessary evil, causing teenagers to cross state lines to receive one. There are even social media videos showing young mothers promoting it with celebration and applause, or justifying it on the grounds of unforeseen illnesses that could have complicated the child&#8217;s life.
What makes abortion-enticing laws so immoral is not only the fact that they give students more access to this, but also the fact that they promote more premarital sex and the “hookup culture,” which often ruins people’s lives and promotes chaotic relationships. Why do prominent institutions and state legislatures feel the need to pervert an academic environment into something hedonistic and deadly?
As I said at the beginning of this article, college is a place for students to learn about important topics that will not only assist their professional careers but also teach them how to be good, responsible adults and citizens. But being a citizen starts with the family, the prime building block of a community, and if students continue to be sexualized and then given a “quick fix” through abortion, our nation will shortly forget what it means to live the good life and rot in our carnal pleasures.
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Simon Olech is a student at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, studying politics and history. He is a freelance contributor and producer for The College Fix, and his work has appeared in publications including the Daily Wire and Washington Examiner.

Female hands holding pills, taking medicine in morning

College Can Be Where Life Starts. Now It’s About Ending It.

Abortion drugs

College Administration

Mifepristone

Jesse Ridgway — the YouTube &#8220;influencer&#8221; who sparked a national firestorm after revealing he and his wife terminated their pregnancy because the baby had Down syndrome — has a skeleton rattling loudly in his closet.
Nine years ago, the social media star posted a video where he gleefully impersonated a person with Down syndrome, complete with a mocking voice and crude physical mannerisms. <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2026/06/10/jesse-ridgway-video-mocking-special-needs-people-years-before-abortion-backlash/">TMZ</a> obtained the footage, and it&#8217;s not pretty.
The clip comes from Ridgway&#8217;s old series &#8220;The Devil Inside,&#8221; a 45-minute production in which his character is forced at gunpoint to rapidly cycle through different personalities. Near the end, when his character&#8217;s brain supposedly &#8220;fries,&#8221; Ridgway slips into a stereotypical caricature of someone with Down syndrome — the exact condition that would later lead him to abort his own child.
When confronted about the clip, Ridgway went full artiste, insisting, &#8220;I play a character named Isaac Kalder who has hijacked Jesse Ridgway’s life. My family is pissed so they hold me at gunpoint and force me to switch characters rapidly. The identity switches happen too fast and it fries my brain.&#8221; Translation: It&#8217;s not mockery; it&#8217;s cinema.
<div style="max-width: 728px; margin: 0 auto;"><iframe style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; max-width: 100%; width: 100%; margin: 20px auto 5px; border: 0;" src="https://player.mux.com/AZnYlUYBYTBpIeH5SqYGOxm8mIxjpa2j?metadata-video-content-type=embed_video&amp;metadata-video-id=42f40408-b80b-4fdc-b5d1-1177453c5ee3&amp;metadata-video-stream-type=on-demand&amp;metadata-video-title=2026-06-10%20YouTuber%20Down%20Syndrome%20Character&amp;poster=https%3A%2F%2Fdailywireplus-v2.imgix.net%2Fimages%2Fembedded-videos%2F8ccdc626-e03a-4af5-9ba5-0931200fc7ff.png&amp;autoplay=false&amp;accent-color=%23DB3D3B&amp;primary-color=%23ffffff&amp;secondary-color=%23000000" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Credit: McJuggerNuggets
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The revelation lands like a sledgehammer given what came later in Ridgway&#8217;s life. Just days ago, the YouTuber — who boasts over four million subscribers — <a href="https://x.com/McJuggerNuggets/status/2062315803177881822" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> on X that he and his wife, Ashley, terminated their pregnancy after a trisomy 21 diagnosis. He said he initially hoped he could &#8220;make it work&#8221; if the baby was just &#8220;a little slow intellectually,&#8221; but concluded the condition would be too hard on the child and family. He capped the announcement with a pointed &#8220;Thankfully, we had a choice.&#8221;
The internet <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/youtube-star-ends-life-of-unborn-child-after-down-syndrome-diagnosis?utm_source=chatgpt.com">erupted.</a> Pro-life advocates, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), and thousands of others blasted the couple. Johnson <a href="https://x.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/2062864877471797445">declared</a> that &#8220;every single person has inestimable dignity and value&#8221; regardless of health condition. Former ESPN anchor Sage Steele was <a href="https://x.com/sagesteele/status/2062743081602990214">more blunt</a>: &#8220;You CHOSE to abort your baby &#8230; You ARE NOT A VICTIM. This is narcissism at its finest.&#8221;
The death threats followed — which Ridgway has been vocal about — but sympathy has been hard to come by, particularly after his response to critics who asked what if his parents had aborted him. His response? &#8220;But, I&#8217;m normal.&#8221;
Normal. That was his word. The same guy who mocked Down syndrome on camera, then aborted his child for having it, wants you to know he&#8217;s the normal one.
Worth noting: between 350,000 and 400,000 Americans currently live with Down syndrome — and studies <a href="https://lozierinstitute.org/improving-joyful-lives-societys-response-to-difference-and-disability">show</a> they report high levels of life satisfaction. At least 67% of Down syndrome diagnoses in the U.S. end in abortion.
Jesse Ridgway has not backed down.
Neither has the backlash.

Build Series Presents Jesse Ridgway Discussing “Psycho Family”

YouTube Star Mocked Down Syndrome Years Before Murdering Baby Diagnosed With It

Jesse Ridgway

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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YouTuber Jesse Ridgeway, who goes by McJuggerNuggets to his over 4 million subscribers, has sparked heated debates over the last week after announcing that he and his wife had chosen to get an abortion. The couple recorded themselves explaining that decision after discovering the unborn child had a high likelihood of being born with Down syndrome.
The pro-life crowd rightfully called out this evil for what it is: eugenics. Even some leftists seemed to grapple with the larger ramifications, with several X commenters expressing their cognitive dissonance that abortion on demand for any reason is good, but also people with disabilities should be protected.
Ridgeway <a href="https://x.com/McJuggerNuggets/status/2062315803177881822">said</a> when he first found out the baby may have Down syndrome, he was &#8220;optimistic&#8221; and would try to &#8220;make it work&#8221; if the child was just &#8220;a little slow intellectually.&#8221; But he decided against it. &#8220;I just didn&#8217;t fully understand what Down syndrome entailed,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;I didn&#8217;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.&#8221;
The one thing no one seems to be talking about is how Ridgeway opened up a conversation that should be seen as a gift to the pro-life argument. That is, he exposed the reality of why abortions are happening, and it’s not the extreme situations that so often dominate headlines.
Pro-abortion advocates would love for the general public to picture abortions happening only when the baby was going to die anyway, or when the woman was raped, or very, very early in a pregnancy when the fetus was supposedly nothing more than a meaningless clump of cells. For years, pro-lifers have pushed back on that narrative with facts and reason. But it took a random YouTuber to show the reality of who is getting abortions and why.
Per the National Library of Medicine, the most <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3729671/?shem=rimspwouoe,">common reasons</a> women seek abortion include “financial reasons (40%), timing (36%), partner related reasons (31%), and the need to focus on other children (29%). Most women reported multiple reasons for seeking an abortion crossing over several themes (64%).&#8221;
Studies show that at least 67% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in the United States are aborted. In Iceland, there are almost no cases of Down syndrome because those who have it are killed before they have the chance to be born.
Between 350,000 and 400,000 Americans have Down syndrome, meaning they were born with an extra chromosome. When polled, these individuals consistently say they are satisfied with their life and were happy they were born, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/youtube-star-ends-life-of-unborn-child-after-down-syndrome-diagnosis">reported</a>. 
The Ridgeways going viral for the killing of their unborn child has prompted parents, siblings, and friends of people living with Down syndrome to post stories of why their lives are amazing. They speak of challenges, yes, but also of a surprising joy that can only come from accepting reality. People of faith would call this following God’s plan. However, even non-religious people can understand the futility in trying to control the world and the peace that comes from embracing life as it comes. 
It also points to a larger question: Who is qualified to determine what makes a life worth living? 
Stories such as the Ridgeways&#8217; are gleefully held up by the pro-abortion crowd as proof of why abortion should exist. But this viral Down syndrome story is a bridge too far for many people who recognize that Trisomy 21 isn’t life-limiting enough to warrant a death sentence. They are pointing out how people with Down syndrome are often the happiest individuals they know. Why do they deserve to die for being “differently abled,” as progressives would say?
I used to have a distant acquaintance who was an ob-gyn who performed abortions. We would get into surface-level debates all the time about abortion. I will never forget the one time she conceded to me on one point: sex-selective abortions. She recalled a time her patient, who only wanted two children, came into her office to schedule a second-term abortion after finding out she was pregnant with a second girl. “All I could think about was this woman’s adorable toddler, with blonde curls and big eyes, and think she was making a huge mistake terminating a healthy pregnancy,” she told me.
Even someone participating in such an evil act had a moral standard. Most Americans who believe abortion should be legal also have lines they won&#8217;t cross, which are commonly determined by gestational age. But the thing about lines is that they are incredibly arbitrary. If we tell mothers only to abort for life-limiting medical reasons, then who gets to decide what counts as life-limiting? 
Ridgeway has made it clear that the real justifications people give for abortion — Down syndrome, my boyfriend broke up with me, I wanted a boy instead, I’m just really tired — are flimsy excuses when it comes down to it. Abortion is never the right choice. Now that the reasons it keeps happening are out in the open, we can start having honest conversations about it.

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He Thought He Was Defending Abortion. Instead, He Exposed It.

Children

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