On January 23rd, 2024, ASAN and 29 other organizations sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asking them to release a proposed rule to ban electric skin shock devices. A proposed rule is an idea or draft of a rule. People only have to follow the rule if it gets passed. In order to ban electric skin shock devices, the FDA has to release a proposed rule, get public comments on it, and then decide if it will implement the rule. Implementing the rule means that people will have to follow it. 

As you may remember, the FDA banned these devices in 2020, but then the Judge Rotenberg Center sued the FDA because it wanted to keep shocking the people who live there. In 2021, the judge in that lawsuit ruled that the FDA did not have the power to ban electric skin shock devices. In December 2022, Congress made it clear in a law they passed that the FDA does have the power to ban these devices. Since then, we have been waiting for the FDA to release a new proposed rule to ban electric skin shock devices. ASAN and other advocacy organizations wrote a letter to the FDA on May 4th, 2023 asking them to do so.

In our most recent letter to the FDA, ASAN has asked for a new proposed rule to be released as soon as possible. The longer the FDA waits, the longer people at the Judge Rotenberg Center will be tortured with electric skin shock devices. 

Please look out for updates from us once the proposed rule is released. We will need as many people as possible to comment on the proposed rule once it comes out, to show the FDA that many people want electric skin shock devices to be banned. We will be sharing lots of resources on how to write your comment. Thank you for helping us #StopTheShock!

Autistic Self Advocacy Network

PO Box 66122
Washington, DC 20035

 

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