• Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing backlash for his April 16 press conference about autism.
• In his remarks, RFK Jr. said that children diagnosed with autism are “suffering,” falsely claiming that they will never pay taxes, fall in love, have jobs or even "play baseball."
• Despite RFK Jr.'s comments, his aunt Eunice Kennedy Shriver dedicated her life to children and adults with intellectual disabilities, founding the Special Olympics so that children from around the world could compete in sporting events tailored to their needs.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave his first press conference as President Donald Trump’s secretary of health and human services on April 16, addressing a new CDC study about the rise of autism diagnoses among children in the United States.

During his remarks, Kennedy declared that the year-by-year increase constitutes an autism “epidemic” and vowed to identify the “environmental causes” that are responsible.

Kennedy, who has previously promoted a scientifically debunked claim that autism is caused by vaccines, denied that the uptick in diagnoses can be explained by experts learning more about the disorder.

However, some of his most controversial statements were the stark, yet demonstrably false, claims he made about life for children who are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

"Autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children. These are children who should not...

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