1. United States
2. N.M.
3. Letter

I am writing to you as a concerned constituent regarding Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent statements and proposals concerning autism, medical privacy, and the dignity of people with disabilities. Mr. Kennedy’s plan to, if elected, compel the government to review the private medical records of Americans to study autism rates is a grave violation of privacy and civil rights. The suggestion that state and federal agencies should be forced to hand over confidential health and education records—regardless of consent—evokes some of the darkest chapters of history, when regimes targeted and tracked vulnerable groups in the name of "research." Compounding this, Mr. Kennedy has made dehumanizing comments about autistic people, saying they will “never pay taxes, never hold a job, never write a poem, never go out on a date, and many will never use a toilet unassisted.” Such false and harmful rhetoric perpetuates stigma and discrimination, undermines the achievements and humanity of autistic individuals, and directly contradicts hard-won progress toward inclusion. History teaches us that the path to oppression often begins by singling out groups and violating their privacy under the guise of science. The tactics Kennedy proposes bear troubling similarities to those used by totalitarian states to justify violating human rights and targeting marginalized communities—including, most notoriously, by the Nazi regime. I urge you to: - Publicly condemn Mr. Kennedy’s statements and proposals. - Demand he immediately withdraw from any position of public trust or candidacy. - Advocate for strong legal protections for medical privacy and the civil rights of autistic and disabled Americans. - Ensure no administration, present or future, is permitted to weaponize private health data against vulnerable populations. Leadership requires protecting the rights and dignity of all. Please act now to safeguard our communities against these dangerous precedents.