Trump Tells Pregnant Women to Avoid Tylenol, Citing an Autism Link Researchers Dispute

At a White House event on September 22, 2025 with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump told pregnant women to limit or avoid acetaminophen, saying "taking Tylenol is not good, alright? I'll say it. It's not good," and announcing that the FDA would notify physicians of a possible association between prenatal use and autism. The FDA initiated a safety label change and wrote to physicians encouraging them to consider minimizing acetaminophen use in pregnancy for routine low-grade fevers, while stating that a causal relationship has not been established. The agency also approved a label update for leucovorin to treat cerebral folate deficiency in some children with autism, with NIH confirmatory trials to follow.

Acetaminophen is one of the few pain and fever medicines considered usable in pregnancy, and untreated high fever carries its own documented risks. A presidential instruction that outruns the regulator's own stated finding leaves clinicians managing patients who have received conflicting guidance from the government, and converts an unsettled research question into federal health messaging.

Kenvue, which makes Tylenol, said independent science shows acetaminophen does not cause autism. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists called the announcement irresponsible, and the Autism Science Foundation said the claimed association rests on limited, conflicting and inconsistent evidence, noting a Swedish study of roughly 2.5 million children that found no increased neurodevelopmental risk.