Interesting... but,

If I'm understanding correctly, this study looked at the current health of mothers, not at their health status while they were pregnant with the child who later developed symptoms of autism. As a former teacher and as someone who has friends with autistic children, I can attest that the daily stress levels of mothers of autistic children is without doubt quite a bit higher than the the stress levels generally experienced by other mothers.

Since stress has all sorts of effects on our hormonal balance, I gotta wonder whether stress from dealing with autism might not have CAUSED the higher levels of T4 deficiency seen rather than a pre-existing T4 deficiency causing the autism.

It also strikes me that levels of autism in the United States sky-rocketed even during the years when iodine deficiency had "almost been eradicated" here.

Cause/effect can be notoriously hard to tease out.