RFK Jr. plays fast and loose with autism statistics during rambling press conference with Texas governor

AUSTIN — During a rambling press conference in the Texas Capitol, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blamed low-income Texans’ purchase of processed foods on a litany of health problems and launched into a string of unfounded claims about autism.

Gov. Greg Abbott sat beside Kennedy at the event, which was meant to celebrate the Republican governor’s signing of three bills tied to Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda. One of those bills is Senate Bill 379, which prohibits Texas SNAP recipients from using their food stamps to purchase candy, soda and other foods deemed unhealthy by the state.

Kennedy arrived around 30 minutes late for the press conference as reporters and Republican politicos milled around the governor’s public reception room.

“Taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund chronic health problems in our state,” Abbott declared to cheers and claps from the GOP lawmakers arrayed behind he and Kennedy, a Trump appointee who’s a high-profile vaccine skeptic with no medical degree.

Even though Abbott made no mention of SB 379 being intended to curb autism, Kennedy — who’s known for making broad claims about childhood vaccines being linked to autism— launched into a 10-minute tirade about processed foods destroying the health of American children.

“I got involved with this primarily because I came from a big family … and I never saw anybody with diabetes, never knew anybody with a food allergy, I never knew anybody with autism,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy’s critics have pointed out that such anecdotal claims are meaningless because autism and food allergies were far less frequently diagnosed by medical professionals in decades past.

“I’m looking at kids as I walk through the airports today, as I walk down the street. I see these kids that are overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation in their faces, from their body movements and lack of social connection … I know that’s not how our children are supposed to look.”

Kennedy then incorrectly claimed that 1 in 25 Texans have autism. In reality, that number is estimated to be about 1 in 31, based on national averages, according to the Autism Society of Texas. Without citing for the source for the statistic, the secretary also went on to assert that 1 in 12.5 boys in California suffer from the neurodevelopmental disorder.

“We know what’s making us sick, and we owe it to our children to fix it, to make sure that they’re not exposed to these kinds of exposures,” Kennedy said. “One of the ways we’re going to do that is through the SNAP program the governor just signed.”

Abbott didn’t mention autism at any point during his discussion of the bills he’d signed. However, he watched Kennedy intently while the secretary spoke.

Even so, some of Abbott’s Republican colleagues appeared to agree with Kennedy’s remarks, nodding and moaning in agreement with his statements about the health deficiencies of U.S. children.

Earlier this year, Kennedy told the American public that his department would release a report by September about the root causes of autism. However, in May, he delayed the timeline of when he might complete the report.

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This article appears in Aug 21 – Sep 2, 2025.