April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, an annual campaign to raise public awareness about sexual assault and educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual violence. This is a subject that I am incredibly passionate about, especially when it comes to focusing on autistic women, and it’s been a while since I’ve spoken about autistic women and health rights..but back in October last year my experiences at One Young World pushed me to want to raise more awareness and make change in this area – so all autistic women have equal access to a good quality of life and good health (mental and physical), free from harm. I have touched on my history of sexual abuse very briefly before, and I don’t want to talk about it today, but it drives me to never forget this mission.
I’m therefore going to, starting this month, rebegin my previous series of introducing the key issues relating to autistic women’s access to healthcare and good health.
(the theme for 2025 by the way is ‘together we act, united we change’, highlighting the importance of working together)
Previous posts:
I also just wanted to use this post to highlight some alarming statistics:
Roughly 9 in 10 autistic women experience gender violence at some point in their lives.
In one study, 75% of autistic women reported that their first experience of gender violence occurred during childhood or adolescence.
Autistic adults are much less likely to disclose their experiences of violence to anyone, including family, friends, or mental health professionals.
AND, most importantly, to anyone who has been through experiences like this…I can’t imagine what you have been through and continue to go through, but know you aren’t alone <3
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