Republican President Donald Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services has again sparked fear and outrage among the people he claims to serve. During a press conference on April 14 filled with misinformation and ableist stereotypes, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the press about his plans to find the "environmental factors" causing a nonexistent autism epidemic.
On Tuesday, CBS News reported the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was creating a national autism registry to track diagnosed Americans as part of a plan to collect patient data without patient consent or knowledge.
Under the Trump administration, many ongoing studies and much completed research was canceled by DOGE or scrubbed from websites due to the MAGA war on woke and DEI.
Now NIH resources are being directed towards pseudoscience to justify or legitimize one of the conspiracy theories RFK Jr. has made a name for himself spouting.
The HHS Secretary insisted autism cannot be genetic—despite legitimate research showing otherwise—and is instead a disease children catch in ever increasing numbers at age two. But the medical and scientific communities have long pointed to a drastic increase in diagnoses of autism due to broader definition, understanding, and assessment, not a greater occurrence.
In a statement to Newsweek, clinical psychologist and autistic person Amy Marschall stated a national registry provokes "huge concerns" regarding ethics and consent as it pertains to the federal government.
She explained:
"What will this information be used for, and what if that purpose changes after the data have already been gathered?"
"Historically, governments keeping lists of citizens based on disability has not ended well."
"The statements that this is necessary because autistic people are such a terrible drain on resources is rooted in eugenics."
"Overall, I do not see a benefit to the federal government creating an autism registry. Many state registries lack funding, so although they are unethical, the harm they can do is limited."
"Federal resources being put to track autistics frankly scares me."
People are outraged over the overreach born of such ignorance.
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The leading cause of death for children in the United States is gun violence.
As many pointed out, this fact is not something the Trump administration wants to address. Instead, conspiracy theorists like RFK Jr. seemingly want to weed out those they find undesirable, like people with autism.
Who's next?
Seven states already have some sort of autism registries created in the wake of the antivaxxer movement: Delaware, Indiana, North Dakota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Utah and West Virginia.
New Hampshire had an autism database, but in June 2024, the state passed legislation repealing the state's autism registry and directing their Department of Health and Human Services to destroy the individual records in it.
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