--- title: Trump Links Tylenol Use During Pregnancy to Autism. What Does the Science Show? description: President Trump said pregnant women should "fight like hell" to avoid taking the drug, contrary to medical advice. canonical: https://time.com/7319473/trump-links-tylenol-to-autism/ author: Dominique Mosbergen article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-09-22T22:46:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2025-09-23T21:31:37.000Z article:section: Health og:title: Trump Links Tylenol Use During Pregnancy to Autism. What Does the Science Show? og:description: President Trump said pregnant women should "fight like hell" to avoid taking the drug, contrary to medical advice. og:url: https://time.com/7319473/trump-links-tylenol-to-autism/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7d90ed5106fce34/6998c9eb7323af0da82bcdb2/GettyImages-2236794397.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Trump Administration To Reportedly Link Tylenol Use During Pregnancy To Autism og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Links Tylenol Use During Pregnancy to Autism. What Does the Science Show? twitter:description: President Trump said pregnant women should "fight like hell" to avoid taking the drug, contrary to medical advice. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7d90ed5106fce34/6998c9eb7323af0da82bcdb2/GettyImages-2236794397.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Links Tylenol Use During Pregnancy to Autism. What Does the Science Show? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. 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In a rambling press conference on Sept. 22, President Donald Trump claimed that acetaminophen use in pregnancy is driving the rise in autism—and then ad libbed his own guidance on childhood vaccines. Watching the President deliver what is widely considered by leading professional organizations as inaccurate and dangerous medical advice gave me painful flashbacks to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when I was working on the frontlines as an emergency physician in New York City. By the time the press conference ended, people on social media were already comparing it to Trump’s infamous suggestion in April 2020 that injecting disinfectant might treat COVID. TIME Ideas hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors._  by [Dominique Mosbergen](https://time.com/author/dominique-mosbergen/)  ## Dominique Mosbergen Health correspondent Updated: Sep 23, 2025 9:31 PM UTCPublished: Sep 22, 2025 10:46 PM UTC In a rambling press conference on Sept. 22, President Donald Trump claimed that acetaminophen use in pregnancy is driving the rise in autism—and then ad libbed his own guidance on childhood vaccines. Watching the President deliver what is widely considered by leading professional organizations as inaccurate and dangerous medical advice gave me painful flashbacks to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when I was working on the frontlines as an emergency physician in New York City. By the time the press conference ended, people on social media were already comparing it to Trump’s infamous suggestion in April 2020 that injecting disinfectant might treat COVID. TIME Ideas hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.  by [Dominique Mosbergen](https://time.com/author/dominique-mosbergen/)  ## Dominique Mosbergen Health correspondent Updated: Sep 23, 2025 9:31 PM UTCPublished: Sep 22, 2025 10:46 PM UTC In an announcement on Sept. 22, President Donald Trump said that using Tylenol during pregnancy increases the risk of having a baby with autism, contradicting advice from leading obstetrics experts who say the popular drug is very safe in pregnancy. “Don’t take Tylenol. Fight like hell not to take it,” Trump said during a White House briefing. The president, who was flanked by U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other cabinet officials, said pregnant women shouldn’t take acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, unless they have an “extremely high fever.” “If you can’t tough it out, if you can’t do it, that's what you’re going to have to do,” Trump said. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists was quick to dispute Trump’s claims, saying that there was no clear evidence linking the use of acetaminophen to autism or other risks to fetal development. Other pain- and fever-reducing medications, such as ibuprofen and aspirin, carry risks during pregnancy, and acetaminophen is the only over-the-counter drug approved to treat fevers during pregnancy. Trump’s announcement “is not backed by the full body of scientific evidence and dangerously simplifies the many and complex causes of neurologic challenges in children,” said ACOG President Dr. Steven Fleischman [in a statement](https://www.acog.org/news/news-releases/2025/09/acog-affirms-safety-benefits-acetaminophen-pregnancy). “It is highly unsettling that our federal health agencies are willing to make an announcement that will affect the health and well-being of millions of people without the backing of reliable data.” Trump said not treating fevers in pregnant women can’t cause any harm. “There's no downside in not taking it,” he said. Untreated fever in pregnancy is associated with miscarriage, fetal organ malformations and cardiovascular complications, and even autism, according to a 2021 [statement](https://www.sogc.org/common/Uploaded%20files/Latest%20News/EN%5FStatement-Acetaminophen%5F16Nov2021.pdf) from the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. “The conditions people use acetaminophen to treat during pregnancy are far more dangerous than any theoretical risks,” Fleischman said. > [](https://twitter.com/HHSGov/status/1970239296641945928) Several studies conducted over the past decade have probed whether acetaminophen increases the risk of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. The results of these studies have been mixed, with some showing a possible correlation and others showing no link. None has shown a causal connection. A [review](https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-025-01208-0) of 46 of these studies published in August in the journal _BMC Environmental Health_ concluded that there was a link between prenatal acetaminophen use and the incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders including autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, a senior author, said in an emailed statement to TIME that he had discussed the findings of the review with Kennedy and National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya in recent weeks. Baccarelli, dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an environmental health professor, said given the review’s conclusions, “caution about acetaminophen use during pregnancy—especially heavy or prolonged use—is warranted.” Baccarelli has acknowledged that he served as an expert witness in a case involving potential links between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders. “This involvement may be perceived as a conflict of interest,” the review said. The Trump Administration relied in part on the review as the basis for the announcement. But many obstetrics experts have questioned the validity of the review’s conclusions. Dr. Nathaniel DeNicola, an ob-gyn who advises ACOG on environmental health issues, says the problem with the review is that it was based on studies that were mostly poorly designed and therefore unreliable. “The studies that have claimed an association were so deeply flawed that you can’t draw any conclusion,” he says. Several studies, for example, relied on women’s memories to determine if and how much acetaminophen they took during their pregnancy. The women were asked to recall these details weeks, months, and in some cases years after the fact, DeNicola says. “Anyone who has been asked the question, ‘What did you have for lunch yesterday?’ knows that you tend to misremember things, even things from the recent past,” he says. Most studies also didn’t take the potential influence of genetics on autism into account, DeNicola says—a consequential oversight given that genetic factors play a significant role in the development of autism. Higher quality studies—specifically a handful of them that have taken genetics into consideration—have shown no link between prenatal acetaminophen use and autism risk, DeNicola says. One such [study](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2817406), which was published in 2024 in _JAMA_, looked at the electronic medical records from nearly 2.5 million children who were born in Sweden between 1995 and 2019\. In an initial analysis that didn’t control for genetic factors, the researchers found a small association between women who used acetaminophen during pregnancy and the incidence of autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability. However, when the researchers conducted a follow-up study that compared siblings who were exposed to acetaminophen during their mother’s pregnancy to those who weren’t exposed to the drug, they found no link. “What this tells us is that the \[initial\] association was most likely due to genetics,” says Brian Lee, a professor of epidemiology at Drexel University and the study’s lead investigator. Research suggests that people with autism are more likely to suffer from pain-causing conditions such as headaches and migraines and may therefore be more likely to take pain medications. Pregnant women with a higher genetic risk of autism may therefore be more likely to take acetaminophen, Lee says. Asked about the review published in August, which included his group’s _JAMA_ study, Lee says its conclusions were flawed because it was based on mostly flawed studies. “Garbage in, garbage out,” he says. Correlation is also, critically, not causation, Lee says. “The example I like to give is: Eating ice cream is statistically associated with drowning. But ice cream doesn't cause you to drown.” It just so happens that both the rates of eating ice cream and swimming go up in hot weather. During the press briefing, Dr. Marty Makary, chief of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration claimed that Baccarelli, who co-authored the review, had said there was a clear causal relationship between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders. Baccarelli, however, was unequivocal in his statement to TIME that the review didn’t show a causal link and that more research was needed “to confirm the association and determine causality.” “As the only approved medication for pain and fever reduction during pregnancy, acetaminophen remains an important tool for pregnant patients and their physicians. High fever can pose risks to both the mother and the fetus, including neural tube defects and preterm birth,” Baccarelli wrote in the statement. “After assessing the evidence, my colleagues and I recommended a balanced approach based on the precautionary principle: Patients who need fever or pain reduction during pregnancy should take the lowest effective dose of acetaminophen, for the shortest possible duration, after consultation with their physician about their individual risk-benefit calculation.” Baccarelli’s advice echoes what most doctors already advise their pregnant patients to do. Kenvue, the parent company of Tylenol’s manufacturer, told TIME in a statement that acetaminophen is the "safest pain reliever option for pregnant women as needed throughout their entire pregnancy" and that without it, women face dangerous choices including suffering through potentially harmful conditions such as fever or using riskier alternatives. “We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism. We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned about the health risks and confusion this poses for expecting mothers and parents," a company spokesperson said. Kenvue’s shares dropped to an all-time low on Sep. 22, ahead of Trump’s announcement, [_Barron’s_ reported](https://www.barrons.com/articles/stock-movers-5c258536). Trump said at the briefing that his administration was dedicated to confronting the “horrible, horrible crisis” of autism. Kennedy said NIH and other federal health agencies were actively searching for possible causes of autism, including probing the potential risks of vaccines. Large-scale studies conducted over decades have shown no link between vaccines and autism. Researchers say [there is no single cause](https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/conditions/autism) to the range of conditions that fall under the umbrella of autism spectrum disorder. Instead, experts believe that genetics together with myriad environmental factors—including maternal age and health and exposure to pollution and contaminants like heavy metals—play a role. Following the White House briefing, the FDA announced that itwas issuing a notice to physicians highlighting the potential risks of acetaminophen use during pregnancy. The agency said it was also initiating a safety-label change for the drug. ## Transcript President Trump claimed that Tylenol is directly linked to increasing rates of autism. So taking Tylenol is not good. I'll say it. It's not good. The problem is, is that he nor anyone in his administration offered any new evidence. The administration is relying on a recent review that suggested an association, but went out of their way to say that they cannot prove a causation between Tylenol and autism. If you're pregnant, don't take Tylenol. Fight like hell not to take it. That's just bad guidance. We know that having a fever during pregnancy can be damaging and potentially harmful, not only for their mother, but also for the developing fetus. Here's what we actually know about the link between acetaminophen and autism. There have been some studies that show a weak association between the drug and autism. There are others that have failed to show such an association, particularly after controlling for genetic and other factors. And some studies have actually shown that failure to take Tylenol during pregnancy for a fever can actually increase the risk of autism. Right now, if you have questions about acetaminophen and autism, you talk to your doctor or trust reputable organizations and agencies. What we need right now is less medical opinion from the president behind the days of the Oval Office, and more solid research into what causes autism. Unfortunately, I feel like what happened this week makes it less likely. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7319473/trump-links-tylenol-to-autism/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7319473/trump-links-tylenol-to-autism/"},"headline":"Trump Links Tylenol Use During Pregnancy to Autism. 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