Parents react to RFK Jr.’s child autism press conference: ‘When there is ignorance, that breeds fear’

Parents of autistic children are speaking out following Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s press conference Wednesday, where he discussed the findings of a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on the increased rates of autism diagnoses in the U.S.

The CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) report, published on April 15, found that in 2022, one in 31 U.S. children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, representing an increase from the previous 2010 estimate of one in every 36 children.

Kennedy, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said the CDC’s findings showed, “the autism epidemic has now reached a scale unprecedented in human history.”

The CDC has been collecting data on autism in children since 2000, when it was initially reported that one out of every 150 children was on the autism spectrum. Since then, the CDC has increased the number of ADDM sites analyzing children and researchers have suggested that an increased awareness of how autism presents in children has likely contributed to the rise in diagnoses, among other factors. The specific guidelines used to make an autism diagnosis have also expanded significantly over the last two decades.

But Kennedy rejected the idea that the steady rise in diagnoses has been driven by increased access to autism screenings, while criticizing research that has focused on the genetic factors that, scientists say, contribute to the development of autism. Rather, he described the neurological disorder as “preventable” and likened the rise in diagnoses to the spread of an infectious disease. He discussed plans for studies focused on environmental toxins that, he believes, may be responsible for increased rates of the condition, promising to have “some of the answers” by September.

“Autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children. These are children who should not be suffering like this,” 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.”

This characterization quickly prompted backlash from parents of autistic children, many of whom took to social media to condemn Kennedy’s comments.

“My 27-year-old son with autism didn’t ‘destroy our family’ — he gave us purpose and unity,” actress and activist Holly Robinson Peete posted on X. “Oh, and he pays taxes.”

“This [is] my son. He has autism,” Trevor McCue, a sports writer and father, wrote on X, and also posted a video of his son playing the piano. “There’s challenges, but he’s the best thing [in] my life. There’s nothing wrong with him.”

Eric Garcia, a reporter for the Independent who was at Kennedy’s press conference and was diagnosed with autism around 1994, told Yahoo News that he worried Kennedy’s framing of autism as an “epidemic” could negatively influence the public’s perception of it, creating more fear than understanding.

“Autism should be classified as a disability, not an illness,” Garcia said. “Autism is not good or bad, it’s a way of being.”

Autism is considered a spectrum. The National Autistic Society explains that this doesn’t mean it’s a “straight line between ‘more’ and ‘less’ autistic” but “each autistic person has a unique combination of characteristics … with different sets of strengths and challenges.”

“It’s a horrible message to all,” Garcia said about Kennedy’s speech, “not only to autistic people, but to all of the parents who love and cherish and value their children and don’t see their children as a tragedy. This shouldn’t be a moment of fear. This should be a moment of action.”

Not all parents had the same reaction to Kennedy’s speech, however. Some took to social media to express their concerns over autism in their family and the lack of concrete understanding surrounding the disability.

“For my daughter, autism is not a super power,” Substack writer Emily May wrote on X. “It makes her life very difficult. She struggles to communicate her needs, it’s hard for her to participate in things with other children. … ‘Autism isn’t a disease’ okay well for my child it is as debilitating as one.”

“My daughter changed significantly at 20 months old. She stopped making eye contact, stopped answering to her name, stopped noticing her environment. Lost the few words she had,” May’s post continued. “The medical community doesn’t have a good answer for why regressive autism happens.”

Jennifer Cook, an author and on-camera expert for the Netflix show Love on the Spectrum, told Yahoo News she was not surprised that, for some parents of autistic children, Kennedy’s comments may have tapped into their own questions and fears about their child’s diagnosis.

Cook and all three of her children were diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, considered part of the broader autism spectrum disorder, in 2011.

“Autism may look different in each person,” Cook said. “‘Different’ is not ‘abnormal’ and ‘typical’ and ‘normal’ are not synonyms. And I think what we, as parents, wish for is for our children to have what we have and better. And I understand that when something looks very different, that can be scary.”

Still, Cook says she takes issue with Kennedy’s negative characterization of the impact an autism diagnosis can have on a child and their family, noting that “Kennedy is not bringing any autistic stakeholders into the conversation.”

“When there is ignorance, that breeds fear,” she said.