Trump warned pregnant women about Tylenol. Here’s what MA doctors say.

• Ed Markey denounced the autism announcement, calling it misinformation.
• Most research points to no proven link between autism and prenatal use of acetaminophen. But one study has found a correlation.

President Donald Trump urgently warned pregnant women to avoid taking Tylenol, the name brand of acetaminophen, as he promoted an unproven link between the painkiller and a rise in autism among children.

“Don’t take Tylenol,” Trump said repeatedly during a Sept. 22 news conference alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Fight like hell not to take it.”

The White House website cited a study led by the dean of Harvard University’s public health school that said that using acetaminophen while pregnant could increase risk of pediatric autism and ADHD.

The Harvard webpage on said study was updated on Sept. 23 to include this latest political development. It mentioned that the dean had served as an expert witness for plaintiffs in a legal case that involves possible links between prenatal use of acetaminophen and developmental disorders.

Here’s what Massachusetts psychological and medical experts had to say about the link between prenatal use of Tylenol and autistic spectrum disorders.

Is there a link between Tylenol and autism

The director of Boston University’s Center for Autism Research Excellence, Helen Tager Flusberg, said in an NPR interview that if there is a link between the drug and autism, it’s a minor and narrow association that interacts with the much larger causal link of a person’s genetics with relation to autism.

“So, there’s absolutely no evidence out there to support the kind of strong statement that we heard from President Trump,” Flusberg said.

Ann Bauer, an epidemiologist at the University of Massachusetts and co-author of the aforementioned study that the White House cited, said to Politico that while the study shows a correlation between prenatal acetaminophen use and autistic spectrum disorders and other developmental disorders, the drug should still be a viable option for pregnant women to use.

“For me, if there’s nothing else that comes out of this message, it’s that women deserve to know to make informed decisions,” Bauer said in the Politico report.

One 2024 study mentioned in the Politico report found that there was no link between acetaminophen use and neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, attention deficient or intellectual disability, finding that sibling control analysis saw no association between the drug and disorders.

The American Psychiatric Association said that autism is a complicated disorder and it’s not right to insinuate causation based of a few studies, stating that there is an abundance of evidence to show that acetaminophen, when taken as instructed, is safe for prenatal care.

Politically, some have been critical. Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey denounced Kennedy’s autism announcement on social media, calling it hazardous and flagrant misinformation.

“After spending years falsely claiming that vaccines cause autism, RFK is now peddling a new lie—blaming mothers taking Tylenol during pregnancy as the cause for autism,” Markey said.

Trump said the Food and Drug Administration will soon notify physicians the use of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, is associated with an increased risk of autism and that woman should avoid the painkiller during pregnancy. 

USA Today staff contributed to the reporting of this story.

Rin Velasco is a trending reporter. She can be reached at rvelasco@gannett.com.