Sen. Hillary Clinton’s keynote mentions autism
by Beth
Patricia Wright’s post yesterday talked about how heartened she is “that the needs of people with autism and their families have taken a place on the candidates’ agendas.” If I didn’t know better, I might have thought Patricia had previewed last night’s keynote speech from the Democratic national Convention!
In her speech last night, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D – NY) referred to a woman with two adopted children who have autism as an example of how America’s health care system needs to change. The mother, Mary Worden-Fielder, cannot get health insurance for these two children.
You can read the transcript of Sen. Clinton’s speech Here, and if you link to Hillary’s Bloggers you’ll find out that Mary Worden-Fielder has adopted more than two children.
Worden-Fielder has four adopted children and one is foster daughter she hopes to adopt. Two have autism and one has fetal-alcohol syndrome.
Katy Beh Neas, Vice President of Government Relations here at Easter Seals, knew last year that autism would be an issue in this presidential election. She quoted Easter Seals President and CEO Jim Williams in her Autism an issue in presidential campaign post last November, and I think Jim Williams said it best:
It’s not enough to support research aimed at finding the cause and cure for Autism Spectrum Disorders. We must also increase the availability of services to help meet the needs of people with autism today.