Pregnant Women Avoided Tylenol After Trump’s Autism Warning, Study Finds

A new study reveals that Tylenol prescriptions for pregnant women dropped 16% after President Trump warned about potential autism links in September. Researchers analyzed emergency room data and found thousands of women went without pain relief, despite medical experts calling Tylenol the safest option for expectant mothers.

Expectant mothers significantly reduced their use of Tylenol following President Donald Trump’s public warning connecting the pain medication to autism, according to new research published in the medical journal Lancet.

The study examined emergency room prescription data from September when Trump advised pregnant women to stay away from Tylenol, which contains acetaminophen and is manufactured by Kenvue. Administration health officials supported Trump’s statement by referencing studies suggesting prenatal acetaminophen exposure may contribute to neurodevelopmental conditions.

Research led by Harvard professor Dr. Jeremy Faust showed the decline in Tylenol prescribing gradually returned to normal levels after several weeks, likely due to counterarguments from medical organizations challenging the President’s position.

The same investigation revealed a significant surge in leucovorin prescriptions, a folinic acid compound that Trump promoted as an autism treatment for children during his September 22 press conference.

Federal drug authorities indicated they would authorize the medication following an FDA evaluation of patient information.

The research team analyzed Tylenol prescription rates for pregnant patients visiting emergency departments during the three months preceding and following Trump’s September announcement.

Prescription rates declined by 10% overall, while orders specifically for pregnant women between ages 15-44 decreased by 16% during the initial phase of the three-month observation period. The most dramatic weekly reduction of 20% occurred in the study’s third week.

“This means that thousands of women did not have their pain or fever treated in ERs, likely because they were needlessly afraid,” said study author Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“We think that’s unfortunate because, among the options for pain control and fever reduction, Tylenol is the safest option,” said Faust.

The analysis found no meaningful statistical changes in prescription patterns among non-pregnant women.

During the three-month period following the Presidential advisory, researchers examined electronic medical records covering approximately 90,000 emergency department visits by pregnant women, roughly 853,000 emergency visits by non-pregnant women, and 8.6 million outpatient appointments involving children.

The investigation discovered that outpatient leucovorin prescriptions for children ages 5-17 increased by 71% during the same timeframe. Initial prescriptions jumped 93% at the study’s beginning, with the largest spike occurring in week two when prescription rates more than doubled.

Although prescriptions decreased from their highest point, they remained significantly elevated by the study’s conclusion.

“In a time in which public trust in health, medicine, and science is under attack, it’s regrettable that so many families will have been misled into thinking that this medication could somehow miraculously change the lives of children with autism,” Faust added.

When contacted about the research findings on Friday, Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, responded by referencing his social media post defending the administration’s Tylenol messaging as part of their “commitment to telling the truth about public health.”