May 1, 2025When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. calls autism a “preventable disease” and floats the idea of an autism registry, he’s not only spouting fringe opinions.
He’s echoing a long and harmful legacy of framing neurodivergent people — especially autistic people — as broken, burdensome, and in need of fixing.As an autistic adult raising two autistic children, I know firsthand how this rhetoric shapes public perception, policy, and everyday life.
I know how much damage it can do.In casting autism as a public health crisis and something that “destroys families,” RFK, Jr.
is stripping autistic people of their humanity. Our identities become problems to be solved, not lives to be understood or supported.