By: Terrance Perdue & Timothy WilliamsNovember 26, 2025
Due to the rates of autism soaring, Donald Trump made a statement that a mother taking tylenol while being pregnant can increase the rate of their child having autism. Donald Trump made this statement while at a press conference in Washington, DC, September 22 2025.
While at a press conference Donald Trump and his team claimed that they are taking historic steps to confront the crisis of autism. Because of this, Trump has blamed it on the drug acetaminophen, also known as tylenol.
“They are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary. That’s for instance in cases of extremely high fever that you feel you can’t tough it out, you can’t do it. I guess there's that. It's a small number of cases, I think,” Said Trump.
While autism rates have been increasing over the past few decades from 1 in 150 in 2000 to 1 in 31 kids in 2022, it shows a very high increase over the past 22 years. Because of these statistics, Trump acted quickly by putting the reason into tylenol without any scientific evidence to back this claim up.
¨Acetaminophen commonly known as tylenol during pregnancy can be associated with a very increased risk of autism, so taking tylenol is not good.¨ Trump said
Major medical organizations are disagreeing with Trump saying that acetaminophen is safe for pregnant women and the drug is important because untreated fevers can end pregnancies.
” Sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism.” stated the makers of Tylenol
With evidence showing that tylenol does not increase risk of autism, this begs the question, what is the reason for this uproar in rates for autism like Trump was saying?
Overall, the evidence indicates that tylenol does not contribute to developing autism, rather the recent increase in autism diagnosis is largely driven by changes in our diagnostic criteria, increased screening, and increased awareness.¨ said by autism expert Jeremy VeenstraVanderWeele. A Colombian medical expert.
Carver E&S special ed teacher Jennifer Giblin explains that after Donald Trump’s statement pregnant women can possibly stop taking Tylenol, which will end up not being good for them in the long run.
¨It scares women who are pregnant from taking tylenol, which has been proven to be one of the safest things for someone to take while they're pregnant, for pain relief and for fevers,¨ Giblin said.
With this surge in autism rates, everyone should understand what to do or tips you should know about people with autism or dealing with people with autism.
“People should know that we have to have patience for everybody and understanding for everybody, and so its no different for people who are on the spectrum.” said Carver E&S special ed teacher
“This idea of tagging autism as this terrible thing for people to have is crazy. They don’t see it as a hindrance. It’s just it is who they are. Parents love their children. So also kind of painting this as a thing that’s like, oh, we want to eradicate this" Giblin said.
Page updated
Report abuse