{"id":39220,"date":"2025-09-23T18:08:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T18:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=39220"},"modified":"2025-09-23T18:08:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T18:08:49","slug":"trumps-baffling-paracetamol-claim-is-another-stick-to-beat-pregnant-women-with-news-us-metro-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=39220","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s baffling paracetamol claim is another stick to beat pregnant women with\u00a0 | News US | Metro News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When people peddle medical myths, real families pay the price, and no one knows this better than autistic<\/a> people.<\/p>\n

First, vaccines were blamed after a study by Andrew Wakefield sparked widespread fear that the MMR vaccine was linked to autism<\/a>. It isn\u2019t and the study and claims have been repeatedly debunked and retracted since 2010.<\/p>\n

Now it seems the Trump administration is keen to make a common household product the culprit \u2013 paracetamol.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, reports surfaced that officials around Donald Trump<\/a> have supposedly linked prenatal use of the popular medicine Tylenol (which is known as paracetamol elsewhere in the world) to autism.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Trump claimed<\/a> that paracetamol usage during pregnancy is associated with \u2018a very increased risk of autism, and\u2026 it\u2019s not good\u2019.<\/p>\n

Let me be clear: this story is dangerous.<\/p>\n

And as an autistic adult, mother to an autistic child<\/a>, and the owner of two companies that support autistic and ADHD adults, I will not stand by and watch this false narrative unfold without comment.<\/p>\n

I can see why the White House<\/a> is keen to make such a claim: one simple cause, one easy fix, one target for public anger. Not to mention that it coincides nicely with the pledge the leader of the Department of Health<\/a> and Human Services (HHS), Robert F Kennedy Jr, made back in April to find the cause of autism in five months.<\/p>\n

But the fact is, the science we have seen thus far doesn\u2019t agree<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Major medical bodies \u2013 including both the NHS and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists \u2013 continue to treat paracetamol as the first-line pain relief in pregnancy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When used as directed, paracetamol has been proven to improve quality of life by helping to treat conditions including viral infections and headaches. In fact, experts say there is no reason to avoid it during pregnancy<\/a> if pain or a high temperature needs treating.<\/p>\n

Do you know what can harm a foetus? An untreated fever. Yet, according to Trump, pregnant people should only be using it when they \u2018can\u2019t tough it out\u2019.<\/p>\n

That won\u2019t protect babies \u2013 nor will stirring up fear that vaccines, including the MMR vaccine, and the frequency with which they are given may be harmful\u00a0 \u2013 but it could increase skepticism around vaccines<\/a>\u00a0and traditional medicine, and thus risk the safety of a foetus or baby.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s baffling to me that the White House would choose to make such statements<\/a> when the findings into this so-called \u2018link\u2019 between autism and acetaminophen have not been proven by reputable studies.<\/p>\n

In fact, in large, careful studies \u2013 including a 2024 Swedish sibling study designed to control for shared genetics and environment \u2013 no<\/em> relationship between prenatal paracetamol exposure and autism, ADHD or intellectual disability<\/a> was found.<\/p>\n

That matters because sibling studies cut through a lot of the noise that makes weaker studies look scary.<\/p>\n

So why do these claims keep coming back like a bad sequel? Because they are intended to scare the public and apportion blame.<\/p>\n

The subtext is always the same: if the mother had only done X (or avoided Y), her child wouldn\u2019t be autistic. If you\u2019d made different choices, your child would be different.<\/p>\n

That storyline feeds a culture of fear and maternal blame. It\u2019s preying on every pregnant person\u2019s worst nightmare<\/a>: that something they are doing (or not doing) will harm their unborn child.<\/p>\n

And while I\u2019m all for caution \u2013 as mothers we avoid blue cheese, pat\u00e9, caffeine, alcohol and sushi for exactly that reason \u2013 there is a fine line.<\/p>\n

Real caution is listening to the kind of advice that\u2019s grounded in evidence. That means following NHS guidance, using paracetamol prudently when needed, and talking to your clinician.<\/p>\n

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What is autism?<\/h2>\n
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Autism is a condition that someone is born with and essentially means their brain works in a different way to neurotypical people\u2019s.<\/p>\n

As the NHS website says: \u2018Autism is not a medical condition with treatments or a \u201ccure\u201d\u2018. However, autistic people can be supported to help them in their day-to-day lives.<\/p>\n

Autism is a spectrum and there is no standard definition of what a diagnosis will look like for any one person.<\/p>\n

The NHS explains that \u2018nobody knows what causes autism, or if it has a cause.\u2019 It can affect members of the same family, \u2018so it may sometimes be passed on to a child by their parents\u2019.<\/p>\n

Find out more here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Going on \u2018vibes\u2019 or because it benefits a political narrative, is absolutely not the right course of action.<\/p>\n

Nor is the decision for the FDA to approve leucovorin \u2013 a drug traditionally used to protect cancer patients against toxicity from chemotherapy<\/a> \u2013 as treatment for children with autism when researchers have cautioned that the science is still in the very early stages and that more work is needed before any firm conclusions can be reached.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s also be frank, this ongoing witch hunt into a cause stems from society\u2019s misunderstanding of autism.<\/p>\n

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When political figures suggest that paracetamol causes autism and the supposed \u2018leader of the free world\u2019 refers to autism as a \u2018horrible crisis\u2019, it doesn\u2019t just spread misinformation, it feeds into the narrative that autistic people are a problem to be prevented when we aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Autistic people are just people<\/a>. We\u2019re your colleagues, your neighbours, the business owners you hire, the parents at school<\/a> pick-up and the strangers you pass in the street.<\/p>\n

We may have different communication styles, skills and preferences to non-autistic people, but that doesn\u2019t mean we should have to constantly defend our right to exist, or be treated like a tragedy to be avoided at all costs.<\/p>\n

Claims, like the ones RFK Jr made in April, that children with autism will \u2018never pay taxes\u2019, will \u2018never hold a job\u2019, \u2018never play baseball\u2019, \u2018write a poem\u2019, \u2018go out on a date\u2019 or \u2018will never use a toilet unassisted\u2019, aren\u2019t just unfounded, but are completely untrue for many autistics around the world.<\/p>\n

I run businesses that support neurodivergent adults, all of them are people who are clever, kind, and often exhausted by a world that wasn\u2019t built for their brains. Yet each one of us persists.<\/p>\n

Autism doesn\u2019t need a culprit. It needs understanding, accessibility and support.<\/p>\n

Instead of chasing a mythical cause that does nothing but stigmatise, we can choose to build a world that accommodates neurodivergent minds in schools, workplaces and healthcare.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the future I\u2019m working towards. The one where we, as a society, help autistic and ADHD adults get the support they deserve. A world where my child is seen for who they are and where I don\u2019t have to explain, yet again, that something didn\u2019t \u2018cause\u2019 me to be this way.<\/p>\n

If leaders want to make an big announcement about autism, try this: commit to evidence-based healthcare, fund support services, and stop treating our existence like a public health<\/a>\u00a0emergency to be solved.<\/p>\n

Do you have a story you\u2019d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Share your views in the comments below.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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