Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a licensed doctor, pushed back on President Trump advising pregnant women not to take acetaminophen due to an alleged link to autism in children.
“The preponderance of evidence shows that this is not the case,” Cassidy, the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, wrote Monday on social platform X. “The concern is that women will be left with no options to manage pain in pregnancy. We must be compassionate to this problem.”
The Louisiana Republican, who said he supports the administration’s “desire to address this issue,” called on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to release data supporting the advisement.
Trump, alongside HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other top health officials, warned against pregnant women taking acetaminophen. Acetaminophen is the main ingredient in Tylenol, widely used for pain relief.
The president said pregnant women should not take acetaminophen unless they have an extremely high fever. The White House cited multiple studies that it says link acetaminophen use during pregnancy to neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
One review by Mount Sinai and Harvard researchers, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and published on Aug. 14, found that 27 of 46 studies reported positive associations between acetaminophen use in pregnancy and the development of NDDs in offspring.
In a statement, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) said, “despite assertions to the contrary, a thorough review of existing research suggesting a potential link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and an increased risk of autism and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children has not established a causal relationship.”
The society added that it “supports continued research that includes pregnant patients to understand the potential causes of neurodevelopmental disabilities in children.”
Kenvue, the manufacturer of Tylenol, pushed back against the administration’s claims in a statement on Monday.
“We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism,” said Kenvue, which spun off from Johnson & Johnson in 2023. “We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House and HHS for comment on Cassidy’s statement.
