My son has autism. He is a beautiful, intelligent, wonderful boy who has a harder path in life than most children. This is the story for many, many US children. One in 68 children have autism in this country. And for some of us, it appears that autism is becoming more and more prevalent. At least two of my friends have just revealed to me that their youngest children have recently been diagnosed with autism, children who had been raised exactly the same way with exactly the same genes and medical care as their older, neurotypical siblings. Why are so many children suddenly getting autism? It’s an issue that needs to be studied, and studied with a clear mind without conspiracy theories or damaging anti-vaccination accusations that cause far more damage than good.
And Hillary Clinton is the only candidate talking about this issue affecting so many children and families in the US.
No seriously, go to her website. She is the only candidate who actually has a page devoted to the issue of autism. Gary Johnson's campaign website doesn’t have a page for autism. Jill Stein's campaign website doesn’t address autism under “issues” either. Stein addresses her views of health care with a sentence fragment.
Establish an improved “Medicare For All” single-payer public health insurance program to provide everyone with quality health care, at huge savings.
Nice plan Dr. Stein. Spare us no detail. Oh sorry, are there no details? Okay. By the way, this is what Hillary Clinton is saying about autism.
- Expand insurance coverage for autism services. Hillary will improve access to autism services through healthcare.gov and private health insurance plans.
- Conduct a nationwide early screening outreach campaign. Hillary’s plan will boost early screening rates so that kids can get diagnosed and receive the services that will make a difference in their lives.
- Invest in more research to deepen our understanding of autism. As president, Hillary will significantly increase funding for autism-related research and call for the first-ever nationwide study of the prevalence of adult autism.
- Increase employment opportunities for individuals with autism. Hillary will work to close the employment gap by launching a new Autism Works Initiative that will include a post-graduation transition plan for every student with autism, along with a public-private partnership to connect people with autism to employment opportunities.
- Keep students with autism safe at school. Hillary will work to ensure students with disabilities, including autism, are protected from bullying at school.
My God, Hillary’s plan for autism awareness ALONE is longer than Dr. Stein’s ENTIRE HEALTH CARE PLAN FOR THE COUNTRY!
Oh, and what is Tangerine Hitler saying about autism? Not a fucking thing. Oh, and I may be crapping on Dr. Stein, but at least she says SOMETHING about healthcare, even if it’s just a sentence fragment. Tangerine Hitler's issues are, I’m not joking, about “political correctness” (it’s a title issue on his “Issues” page), “Making Deals with Congress,” and “Trump University Truth.”
Indeed, “Atlantic” magazine says that all not-Hillary candidates have a checkered past when it comes to addressing autism.
Last week, Green Party nominee Jill Stein made headlines for equivocating on the safety of vaccines. “As a medical doctor, there was a time where I looked very closely at those issues, and not all those issues were completely resolved,” she told The Washington Post. “There were real questions that needed to be addressed. I think some of them at least have been addressed. I don’t know if all of them have been addressed.” . . . . . .
But Stein is not the only candidate to address vaccines this election cycle. As first pointed out by the Twitter user @mcclure11, three of the four media-receiving presidential candidates have appeared to pander to anti-vaccine advocates. Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson has tweeted “No to mandatory vaccines.” And Donald Trump linked vaccines to autism in a GOP primary debate last fall, before being corrected on-stage by the surgeon Ben Carson.
Hillary Clinton tweeted in support of vaccines in February of this year. “The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let’s protect all our kids,” she said.
Boom.