As videos circulate of pregnant women popping Tylenol tablets to spite Donald Trump, the head of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Women’s Health warned that every moment of pregnancy is critical for the baby’s development.
Trump warned women Monday not to take Tylenol or its generic, acetaminophen, during pregnancy. He said evidence suggests that acetaminophen use during pregnancy, especially late in pregnancy, may cause autism in children.
“Every single moment of pregnancy is a critical time period, and so, before taking anything, we really encourage women to talk to their doctor to figure out what’s best for them,” Dr. Dorothy Fink, acting assistant secretary for HHS and head of the Office of Women’s Health, told The Daily Signal in an interview.
Pregnant women have posted videos on X and TikTok filming themselves taking a Tylenol tablet with captions like, “Here’s me, a PREGNANT woman, taking TYLENOL because I believe in science and not someone who has no medical background.”
“Pregnancy is such an incredible time of development,” Fink said. “Oftentimes, we think about the critical time period of development being the first trimester, which it definitely is, because the organs are developing. Then in the third trimester, it happens to be a really important time for brain development as well.”
“So many times we think, just because you can buy something over the counter, that it’s safe and that you don’t have to worry about it,” Fink said. “We really want to make sure that just because you get something and you can just walk into the pharmacy and buy it without a prescription, that doesn’t mean that there’s no risk to the mom or the baby.”
Fink encouraged women to work with their doctor to figure out how best to treat high fevers and pain during pregnancy because every medication can have both benefits and risks to it.
Trump encouraged women to only take Tylenol when medically necessary, like in cases of extremely high fever.
“When we are talking about Tylenol during pregnancy, we appreciate that every woman’s medical history is unique, and every patient’s story is unique, and so it’s really important for them to talk with their doctor to figure out what is the best treatment regimen for them for any medical condition,” Fink said, “but we definitely would say that taking any medication in excess during pregnancy is not advised.”
“We want women to be the healthiest they can be during pregnancy, and we want any symptom they have to be fully addressed and managed in the safest possible way,” Fink continued.
“As medical professionals, as public health professionals, a guiding principle is, ‘Do No Harm,'” she said. “And so, if we have data that shows a link, a potential link between taking a medication like Tylenol and potential implications for the mom and the baby, we want to be sure to communicate that, to make sure that as we share information and as we have information, that we’re getting that out to the public.”
“We have data here that is showing this correlation,” she continued, “and we really need to consider our duty as medical professionals and as public health professionals to ensure that women have the best, up-to-date data to inform decisions they’re making in consultation with their doctor.”
After Monday’s announcement, the World Health Organization released a statement saying, “There is currently no conclusive scientific evidence confirming a possible link between autism and use of acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol) during pregnancy.”
But Fink said researchers from around the world have voiced concerns about the correlation.
“I really see this as an opportunity to encourage conversations around medications that in the past have been described as being safe in pregnancy. And sometimes, when you’re told something is safe in pregnancy, that might mean that there’s no harms at all,” Fink said. “And so, maybe [this is] an opportunity to open the lines of communication, both in the U.S. and with our colleagues around the world, to think about how we communicate risks and benefits to patients.”
HHS is dedicated to addressing root causes of autism, Fink said.
“Under [HHS] Secretary [Robert] Kennedy’s leadership, we’re really focused in on addressing chronic diseases,” she told The Daily Signal, “and this is an incredible opportunity for us to really change the course of where we are going with these chronic conditions and make a huge difference in the lives of women.”
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