How offensive is it that a parent would rather risk their child's death than risk their child being on the spectrum? What message does that send to all of the people out there living with autism?

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Risking a child's death is by you not (or less) offensive?

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Mostly misinformed. There is much the same mentality at work here as we see in those who say Evolution is "only a theory." Science is incomprehensible for many, and if there are "conflicting views" in science, and one of them presents a "threat" -- well, of course people will over-react. (We banned saccharine because it cause cancer in mice, and it took decades to learn ONLY in mice!)

This is the problem with the internet. Once information -- and especially disinformation -- is out there, it will stay out there forever, and it often takes a lot of effort to sift our the facts.

Consider: a while back I read that there was a proven connection between abortion and autism. Women who'd had abortions would later give birth to children who were autistic. I mentioned this to a friend, who is a nurse, and she said she did not think it was true. (She'd had an abortion herself, in her early 20s, and neither of the children she had later were autistic.) Back I went to the internet, and I had to dig down thru about fifteen "layers" before I found the story that revealed this "theory" had been completely discounted -- just like the autism/vaccines "connection."

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And Wikipedia institutionalizes all that is wrong with the "information highway."