I work with kids with disabilities and I 100% agree that Autism Speaks is the worst, but there's a bizarre dichotomy that consistently seems to happen when talking about *any* medical research for autism: either you have the anti-vaxxers who want to wipe out everyone with ASD off the map, or you have the high-functioning people with ASD -- like, to be honest, the ones quoted here -- who seem to forget that the low-functioning side of the spectrum exists.
Most of the kids with autism I see are on the lower-functioning end and it's frustrating to me that if I express support for a medical way to help those kids/prevent more of that from happening, suddenly I'm an ableist piece of trash. These aren't just kids who can't quite manage typical social situations: these are kids who can't talk, can't handle even the most simple of social exchanges (e.g. the basic concept of 'paying attention to the same thing as someone else'), and often simply can't take care of their own basic needs. The organization I work with is there to help them, but it's a ridiculously hard road for them and their families.