The Week With Monique | RFK Jr.'s INACCURATE Autism Claims
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What is Monique Presley introducing about Autism Awareness this week?
Greetings Lumination. Happy Friday. I am Monique Presley. Welcome again to the week with Monique. This time and space on the Don Lemon channel where we pick that one thing. If we have to pick that one thing that you should pay attention to in the midst of all the news, all the noise, all the frankly mayhem that's going on in this country right now, here's the one thing that I'm asking you to highlight and pay attention to. If you don't know it, and if you can't tell by my blue, this month is Autism Awareness Acceptance Inclusion Month. This is the last official week. So the last Friday that I would have an opportunity to talk to you about that. And it's important every April and every other month of the year, certainly.
But I am particularly wanting to highlight Autism Awareness Acceptance Inclusion this time because of statements, hideous, horrendous statements and planned actions that we're hearing about from the current administration and from the head of HHS. For those of you who don't know autism, is a neurological disorder that is marked by delay in speech and often marked by repetitive or idiopathic movements in younger children around the age of two is the earliest that there can be an official diagnosis. Right now, one in 31 children in the United States have been diagnosed with autism. It disproportionately affects boys more than girls, and we see it disproportionately affecting black and brown communities more than their white counterparts.
One in 45 adults in the United States have autism, And it obviously is something that deserves attention, that deserves adequate research, and the children who are on the spectrum and their families deserve the best services they possibly can have, as well as the promise of this nation, a free and appropriate public education for each child, whether you learn differently or not. So that is the promise. And we are watching this administration tear that down by trying to gut the Department of Education, by trying to take funds away that go from the federal government to the states that are used for special needs programs that are used in order for children who are growing into young adults to have the best chance to strive, to learn how to work, to have proper paraeducators and services.
But to make matters worse, this week, RFK Jr., the head of HHS, said this.
This is an individual tragedy as well. Autism destroys families. More importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which are our children. These are children who should not be suffering like this. These are kids who many of them were fully functional and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism when they're two years old. And these are kids who will never pay taxes. They'll never hold a job.
Why is Monique highlighting Autism Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion this April?
They'll never play baseball. They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted. And we have to recognize we are doing this to our children and we need to put an end to it.
Now we're in the middle of Autism Awareness Month and this man who seems to have quite literally autism on the brain chooses those comments. It's not just that it was dark. It's not just that it was dire. It's not just that it was wholly useless in terms of providing encouragement or support to families that are on the spectrum. It's that he was completely inaccurate. The things that he said, the assumptions that he made about the outlook, for children and families on the spectrum about whether they are a burden or not, about whether they work or not, whether they'll ever play sports or not. All of it was really just something that could be said about those with the most severe diagnosis. But what he ignores is that the vast percentage of those who are on the autism spectrum become productive members of community if they are given proper supports.
I want to give you some numbers on that. First of all, diagnosis and early intervention matters. So when you're looking at Head Start programs, when you're looking at community programs, when you're looking at what the special education dollars do when they're sent to the states, if this HHS secretary and the Trump administration was really looking to do something about autism to decrease the numbers, do you think they'd be cutting those funds?
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