1. United States
2. La.
3. Letter

I am writing to you to discuss Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s autism registry and his discussions of autism. I am frankly disgusted. Robert F. Kennedy does not understand what autism is, how it presents, or the autism spectrum as a whole. As a mental health professional who specializes in neurodiversity, this is both horrifying and enraging. The way Robert F. Kennedy Jr speaks of autism as a terrible disease that we must cure is a thinly veiled attempt at eugenics. The "medical professional", David Geier, who has been hired has no medical degree and a long history of conspiracy theories and harm to the autistic community. He has promoted false narratives about autism and false cures that have harmed patients. These programs will decrease diagnosis rates and decrease individuals seeking treatment. This is actively harmful to the neurodivergent community. He claims to be “looking for a cause” but what he is actually doing is trying to falsely claim that vaccines cause autism. This is junk science at best and eugenics at worst. There have been thousands of studies proving that autism and vaccines are not linked. It is truly disheartening to be an autistic person in this country. There are no resources and now autism is treated as a plague on society. I am appalled that the current administration is treating the citizens of the United States this way. For a country that speaks of freedom, we are stripping basic freedoms left and right. We are using private medical data to create an autism registry. We do not have a gun owner registry but we have an autism registry. In 2023, 46,728 people died from gun-related injuries. In 2023, autism killed 0. Just as it has every year before that. I am writing to beg that you take action to stop RFK Jr. and his team from deeply harming the autistic community in ways that will take decades to heal from. We cannot allow this blatant disregard for our freedoms.  Thank you.