An e-mail from the Edwards campaign...

Dear Rachel-

Thank you for writing John Edwards about autism.  He appreciates that
you took the time to share your thoughts and concerns.  Hearing from
people all over the country about the issues important to them
strengthens our campaign.

Autism is a quiet crisis, affecting an astonishing 1 in 150 children and
four times as many boys as girls.  Nobody knows why diagnoses have risen
tenfold just over the past decade.

We need to find the causes so we can help protect our children.  The
National Institutes of Health have concluded that childhood vaccines are
not the cause, but many families are not convinced.  As president, John
Edwards will double funding for autism research, issue an all-hands-on
deck challenge and follow the results wherever the science takes us.

We also need to take better care of children affected today.  Our plan
for universal health care, guaranteed coverage of autism care in
Medicaid and private insurance, and better investments in special
education and home health workers will assist families to support and
treat children with autism and help children, and adults, reach their
full potential.

We should also invest more in recruiting, training and paying
sufficiently teachers, therapists, psychologists and others working in
the special education field.  It's time to finally get on a path to
fully funding special education.

This is an area John Edwards has been involved with for a long time.  He
started fighting to help families with autism when he first arrived in
the Senate.  One of the very first bills he introduced and help make law
was the Fragile X Breakthrough Research Act, which provided new
resources for a genetic condition that results in autism for thousands
of children.  The Senate passed the bill into law, providing new
resources for research devoted to Fragile X.

Again, thank you for sharing your ideas with the campaign.

Sincerely,
The Edwards Team