CW: Mentions of suicide and abuse
Texas is one of the last states to fund Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) for autistic children through Medicaid.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ability to bill for ABA services through Medicaid was delayed. This gives a small window of time during this legislative session to convince lawmakers that they should not fund ABA.The Autistic community has long recognized that all ABA is abusive due to higher rates of complex post traumatic stress disorder, the ways it grooms us that enables others to abuse us or the emphasis on masking skills that lead to higher rates of suicidal ideation and suicidality.
Unfortunately, our stories have not been told en mass for politicians to hear. Instead, they hear the stories of our parents, our teachers, and our abusers.This needs to end!Unfortunately, the process to testify to committees who make these decisions is often inaccessible for our community.
The Stop Texas ABA Coalition has decided the best way forward is to collect as many survivor stories as we can. We want our community’s concerns to be expressed to counter the tale that this is the best “treatment” for our population.Help us #StopTXABA by posting a public video on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook or YouTube using the #StopTXABA hashtag.
We will edit them together so that legislators understand what ABA has done and continues to do to us. And to proudly say Nothing About Us Without Us!
![[Image description: Clipart of a laptop with two hands on the keyboard. On the screen is a chat window that has speech bubbles that say:
“Help Us #StopTXABA!”
“How can I help?”
“Post a video on your experiences with ABA as an #ActuallyAutistic person with the hashtag, #StopTXABA.”
“We will be using them to make a montage to show during Texas legislative hearings.”
“Brought to you by STOPTXABA.COM” with a smile emoji.]](https://i0.wp.com/neurodivergentrebel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/stoptxaba-facebook-post.png?resize=720%2C604&ssl=1)
Image description: Clipart of a laptop with two hands on the keyboard.
On the screen is a chat window that has speech bubbles that say:
“Help Us #StopTXABA!”
“How can I help?”
“Post a video on your experiences with ABA as an #ActuallyAutistic person with the hashtag, #StopTXABA.”
“We will be using them to make a montage to show during Texas legislative hearings.”
“Brought to you by STOPTXABA.COM” with a smile emoji.
Florida Medicaid still pays for it. They considered stopping, but then ended up tabling the decision. I think the ABA lobby must be pretty powerful. They sure make enough money off it!