PHILADELPHIA -- Braxton Mitchell has worked with the Amish for 30 years as co-director of the Amish Research Clinic in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He can say for a fact that autism exists in the community, contrary to President Donald J. Trump’s statement Monday that the Amish have “essentially no autism.”

Trump’s remarks perpetuate a false belief that autism rates are lower among the Amish, a misconception that Mitchell says resurfaces periodically. The reality, he says, is that there is no good data on rates of the neurological disorder in the Amish.

But he knows firsthand from working with Amish people in the Lancaster area that they, too, struggle with autism.

“There have not been any good studies to ascertain what the frequency is, so we don’t really know, but anecdotally, yes, th

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