Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is once again making insupportable claims about autism ― and they’re as ableist as ever.
Medical experts say that the rise in autism diagnosis is likely due to improved screenings and access to resources, but on Wednesday, RFK Jr. hazarded another guess: The secretary, who holds no medical credentials, chalked the rise in diagnosis up to “environmental toxins.”
“This is a preventable disease. We know that it’s an environmental exposure. It has to be. Genes do not cause epidemics,” he told reporters Wednesday while promoting a federal study he’s ordered, which he has said will determine autism’s cause by September.
Kennedy’s presser came a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report on Tuesday that found that about one in every 31 children was diagnosed with autism by age 8 in 2022, up from one in 36 in 2020.
There’s no evidence that “living in certain communities puts children at greater risk for developing ASD,” the study concluded. “Differences in the prevalence of children identified with ASD across communities might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices.”
Kennedy’s guesswork on the origins of autism was followed by audacious claims about the quality of life of autistic people. Speaking of kids with autism, Kennedy said “these are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”
The statement was not only off base ― autistic people on social media jokingly wondered if they could get back the taxes they’d paid earlier in the week ― but highly stigmatizing, autism advocates told HuffPost.
“All autistic lives are valuable not just because of what we can do for society, but because we are human,” said Kala Allen Omeiza, a small business owner, author, and founder of I’m Heard, a nonprofit focused on ending the stigma of mental illness in diverse communities.
The reality is, autism diagnosis plays out differently for different people: Many autistic kids grow up to form meaningful relationships (watch the joyous reality show “Love on the Spectrum” for proof of that), hold stable jobs, produce art and poetry, and otherwise live deeply fulfilling lives.
Others with autism do need assistance with certain aspects of their lives ― some may not be able to hold down a job the way a neurotypical person can, as Kennedy suggested ― but that doesn’t make their lives the tragedy he seems intent on portraying them as. They live deeply fulfilling lives, too.
“The idea that we only deserve support if we can prove our potential is one of the most dangerous and insidious forms of ableism,” Allen Omeiza said.
Calling autism an “epidemic” as Kennedy does further alienates those with autism. Framing the neurodevelopmental condition as a problem in need of solving doesn’t help either, said Mykayla Whitmarsh, an autistic woman in Vancouver who works as a coach for neurodiverse people.
“This implies that the very existence of autistic individuals is a crisis,” she told HuffPost. “Autistic people know, we don’t need prevention. We need inclusion, awareness and acceptance.”
Most autism medical experts agree that there is no cure for autism, and as a result, have moved toward treatment that emphasizes support and skills development.
Still, the idea that autism is something that needs to be eliminated or cured is still out there. Allen Omeiza said she once worked at a respected autism research center where some colleagues held similar beliefs as Kennedy.
“Unfortunately, the people most invested in ‘elimination over support’ often receive the most funding,” she said. “They draw the biggest crowds. They speak the loudest, just as RFK Jr. does now.”
That’s “terrifying” to Allen Omeiza “because they’re often the ones influencing policy, shaping public opinions, and making decisions that directly affect the lives of people and families who simply want to be understood and supported.”
Tom Williams via Getty Images
This kind of rhetoric about autism and disabilities tracks for Kennedy.
For Kennedy ― whose mantra is “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) ― any sort of disability, chronic illness or mental health condition is a dire thing. He once argued that the U.S. should combat addiction by opening “wellness farms” to help people get off opioids, antidepressants and stimulants.
At his confirmation hearing for the HHS secretary position, he said that “a healthy person has a thousand dreams” while “a sick person has only one” — the implication being that the only dream a disabled person could possibly have is being cured.
Some have pointed out that Kennedy’s messaging around autism and disabilities (the not-so-subtle suggestion that a life almost isn’t worth living if you’re not producing or contributing to society in a traditionally-prescribed way) mirrors that of the eugenic movement ― a time in the early 20th century when people with disabilities were forced into sterilization programs and institutionalized.
“This is textbook eugenics rhetoric,” said Dom Kelly, the founder and CEO of New Disabled South, a nonprofit that pushes for disability rights and disability justice in 14 states.
“Creating a false narrative about a group of people, calling it a ‘disease’ which has a negative connotation, garnering public support for the eradication of this ‘disease’ ― all of this dehumanization is what ultimately led to the consequences of eugenics rhetoric: forced medical testing, forced sterilization, institutionalization, and unfortunately, mass killing,” Kelly said. (Kelly is alluding to the Nazis’ extermination program, which was deeply shaped by theories proposed by American eugenicists.)
“Having Kennedy use his official capacity to promote this misinformation risks sending families of autistic people on a wild goose chase.”
– Eric Garcia, the author of “We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation”
There are practical concerns about Kennedy’s fatalism and framing of autism for parents, too, said Eric Garcia, the Washington bureau chief at The Independent and the author of “We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation.”
Blaming autism on environmental toxins does nothing but unhelpfully blame parents for their children’s autism, when what caregivers need most is support and guidance in those confusing, often overwhelming early days of a diagnosis.
Most parents get very little assistance with schools, accommodations and health care, Garcia said ― not to mention dealing with the sprawling patchwork of services offered by Medicaid, the primary payer across the nation for long-term care services, including many used by people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers.
Garcia worries, too, about how autistic and disabled people will be impacted by the hollowing out of the Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency responsible for overseeing the Medicaid program. The Trump administration reportedly wants to slash the budget of the department by 30% as part of its efforts to restructure and consolidate key health agencies.
Kennedy’s messaging on autism only makes all this worse, Garcia said.
“Having Kennedy use his official capacity to promote this misinformation risks sending families of autistic people on a wild goose chase,” he said. “It takes away from the worthwhile work of trying to create a more accommodating and accepting world for autistic people.”