Reject Federal Autism Surveillance: Do not Comply w/ Eugenics-Adjacent Registry

I am writing to ask you to publicly reject and refuse to comply with any federal initiative that seeks to create a medical registry of autistic people in your state. According to recent reports, the NIH and CMS are moving forward with plans to use health records to track Americans with autism through a centralized “disease registry.” That framing alone — treating a neurotype as a disease to be traced — should raise alarms for any leader who understands the legacy of eugenics in this country. We’ve been here before. In the name of “public good,” this country once sterilized, segregated, and institutionalized people deemed biologically unfit. Those policies began with tracking and categorizing. The echoes of that era are unmistakable here. This isn’t public health. It’s surveillance. And I am asking you — as the highest elected official in our state— to make it clear: • That our state will not comply with a registry that targets disabled people; • That you will stand against any attempt to weaponize health data against autistic residents; • And that you reject the dehumanizing logic that frames neurodivergent people as a threat to be managed. Autism is not a disease. Autism is a neurotype and a natural variation in how human brains work. Creating databases that flag autistic people like biological risks is not only unethical — it’s dangerous. Please make it clear: Our state will not be part of that.