{"id":26225,"date":"2025-04-18T15:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T15:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26225"},"modified":"2025-04-18T16:23:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T16:23:29","slug":"rfk-jr-claimed-autism-destroys-lives-autistic-people-disagree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26225","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr. Claimed Autism \u2018Destroys\u2019 Lives. Autistic People Disagree."},"content":{"rendered":"
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People in the community called the remarks dehumanizing and warned they could perpetuate harmful stigma.<\/p>\n

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s remarks this week that autism \u201cdestroys\u201d children have prompted outrage among many autistic people and their families. They said that they had done things he claimed were impossible \u2014 hold a job, write a poem, play baseball, go on a date \u2014 and added that the lives of people who did need help performing daily activities were still worthy of respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cAutism doesn\u2019t destroy families. It\u2019s the ableism that does,\u201d said Tyla Grant, who was diagnosed with autism at 17. She called Mr. Kennedy\u2019s comments \u201cfear-mongering\u201d and said his \u201crhetoric flattens our existence into this outdated stereotype.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many parents of autistic children said they feared Mr. Kennedy\u2019s remarks would set back efforts to destigmatize autism and connect families with support services.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow will our children survive if they are considered a tragedy?\u201d said Kim Cristo, whose 17-year-old daughter is \u201cessentially nonverbal\u201d but has a fulfilling social life, loves music and does yoga and karate. \u201cHow can we make their lives meaningful if they are being dismissed as lost causes?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr. Kennedy made his remarks at a news conference on Wednesday discussing new data<\/a> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed autism diagnoses among children in the United States have continued to rise. Though the increase is largely thought to be driven by broadened criteria and increased awareness, Mr. Kennedy falsely declared<\/a> that autism was preventable and called the situation an epidemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are kids who will never pay taxes,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cMany of them will never use a toilet unassisted.\u201d<\/p>\n

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People in the community called the remarks dehumanizing and warned they could perpetuate harmful stigma.Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s remarks this week that autism \u201cdestroys\u201d children have prompted outrage among many autistic people and their families. They said that they had done things he claimed were impossible \u2014 hold a job, write a poem, play baseball, go on a date \u2014 and added that the lives of people who did need help performing daily activities were still worthy of respect.\u201cAutism doesn\u2019t destroy families. It\u2019s the ableism that does,\u201d said Tyla Grant, who was diagnosed with autism at 17. She called Mr. Kennedy\u2019s comments \u201cfear-mongering\u201d and said his \u201crhetoric flattens our existence into this outdated stereotype.\u201dMany parents of autistic children said they feared Mr. Kennedy\u2019s remarks would set back efforts to destigmatize autism and connect families with support services.\u201cHow will our children survive if they are considered a tragedy?\u201d said Kim Cristo, whose 17-year-old daughter is \u201cessentially nonverbal\u201d but has a fulfilling social life, loves music and does yoga and karate. \u201cHow can we make their lives meaningful if they are being dismissed as lost causes?\u201dMr. Kennedy made his remarks at a news conference on Wednesday discussing new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed autism diagnoses among children in the United States have continued to rise. Though the increase is largely thought to be driven by broadened criteria and increased awareness, Mr. Kennedy falsely declared that autism was preventable and called the situation an epidemic.\u201cThese are kids who will never pay taxes,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cMany of them will never use a toilet unassisted.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26227,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26225"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26228,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26225\/revisions\/26228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}