RFK Jr.’s Attack on the Autistic Community

Elizabeth Walen ’28

At the helm of America’s health is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former lawyer and the current Secretary of Health and Human Services. At his first press conference on April 16th, RFK Jr. deemed autism a “preventable epidemic.” He stated wryly, “Genes don’t cause epidemics…You need an environmental toxin.” This epidemic, he argues, is threatening the American lifestyle that people aspire to. He believes that people with autism cannot achieve the American dream because he asserts that they cannot work, pay taxes, start a family, or participate in what he calls average American pastimes. To save Americans from this epidemic, RFK Jr. believes he has identified the pollutant plaguing our society: vaccinations in children. 

RFK Jr. has recently stated that these claims were made towards people with what is called profound autism. Yet, his comments represent modern eugenic views that damage and stigmatize the autistic community. According to Dr. Joshua Anbar, a data collector for the C.D.C., “Autism is not an infectious disease. So there aren’t preventive measures that we can take.” Autism is a neurodevelopmental difference. It is neither something you can catch nor should you avoid. It’s a variation in natural human neurology. RFK Jr.’s approach to autism demonizes neurodivergent individuals and discredits their worth as people. RFK Jr. stated in his speech that those with autism cannot hold a job or live a “normal” life. This erases the fact that autism is a spectrum. A person's worth is not defined by whether they pay taxes or what they do to contribute to the workforce when they are grown. He’s not describing people; he’s describing his eugenic beliefs and a condition he believes is a burden to society.

Autism is categorically not an epidemic. Within the autism research community, it is common knowledge that there has not been an increase in autism cases, but an increase in autism awareness. The number of diagnosed cases of autism has indeed increased nearly fivefold since the year 2000, according to the New York Times. That means that in the year 2000, it was estimated that 1/150 children in the United States had autism. In the year 2025, it is estimated that 1/31 children have autism. What’s changed is not the increase in factors that cause autism, but how we detect and respond to it. Since the mid-80s, diagnoses have shifted to a polythetic system. This means that one does not need to have every symptom of autism listed to be diagnosed and treated. Another way to look at the increase in reports of autism cases is that once people stopped being beaten for being left-handed, there was an increase in left-handed people. Rather than an increase in the amount of people with autism, more people identify themselves as being on the autistic spectrum. 

Russell Lehmann, a current lecturer at UCLA, used to be nonverbal and was diagnosed with autism at age twelve. On CNN, he stated that the rhetoric used by RFK Jr. was not only inaccurate, but incredibly harmful. Lehmann calls attention to the mistreatment of autism research. He states that RFK Jr. cutting funding from autism research centers and replacing them with his own task force led by anti-vaxxers does nothing for the community. With accommodations, he states, the neurodivergent community would thrive and would be able to live the life that RFK Jr. described in his speech. Lehmann states, “he acts as if that’s our fault that we can’t. No, it’s society’s fault because … we are not accommodated for.” 

Cases of autism have not increased. With acceptance and accommodations, people are now more readily diagnosed and able to receive meaningful treatment that allows for full engagement in mainstream life. However, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is undermining progress by pushing this harmful belief that autism is a “preventable epidemic” and that people with an autism diagnosis cannot be part of society. His false claims serve to harm the autistic community and isolate them from society. His focus on demonizing life-saving vaccinations will have other long-term negative impacts that won’t be known for many, many years, while at the same time, his extremely harmful rhetoric surrounding autistic people will further set us back. The only epidemic that must be prevented is the harmful rhetoric and misinformation RFK Jr. spreads about the reality and causes of autism.