President Donald Trump on Sunday blamed Tylenol for what he described as an “autism epidemic” in the United States, urging pregnant women to avoid the common pain reliever despite a lack of scientific evidence supporting such claims.

Standing alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump said women should “fight” against using acetaminophen, the generic name for Tylenol. “Don’t take Tylenol. Don’t take it,” Trump said repeatedly, claiming communities without access to the drug have “no autism” and citing the current U.S. diagnosis rate of about 1 in 31 children.

The administration also announced plans for the Food and Drug Administration to add warning labels to acetaminophen products and to promote leucovorin, a folate derivative used in cancer treatment, as a potential intervention for autism. The move reflects Kennedy’s long-standing skepticism of vaccines and environmental exposures in neurodevelopmental disorders, though Trump’s remarks leaned heavily on acetaminophen as a cause.

However, concerns that Tylenol, one of the most widely used medications for pain and fever during pregnancy, may increase the risk of autism in children are not supported by strong scientific evidence, according to recent studies and expert reviews.

Over the past decade, several observational studies reported slight associations between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and autism spectrum disorder in children. Those studies suggested a marginal increase in risk, but the differences were extremely small — typically less than one-tenth of one percent. Researchers now say those findings are likely explained by other factors, including family genetics, parental health conditions, or the underlying reasons the drug was taken in the first place, such as infection or fever.

When scientists applied more rigorous methods, such as sibling-comparison studies that control for shared family background, the link between acetaminophen and autism disappeared. A large population-based study published in 2024 found no evidence of increased risk once family factors were accounted for.

Public health authorities have taken note. The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have both said that current data do not justify changes to clinical guidance. Both organizations emphasize that the existing evidence is observational, limited by potential bias, and does not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between Tylenol and autism.

Experts stress that while ongoing research is important, the weight of current evidence indicates that acetaminophen use during pregnancy is not a causal factor in autism.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)