Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a gastroenterologist who chairs the Senate’s health committee, is challenging President Donald Trump’s announcement baselessly linking Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism and calling on the Health and Human Services Department to release any evidence it has on the subject.
Cassidy first addressed the president’s words on X, saying studies don’t back up the claims he made at a clunky press conference on Monday.
“The preponderance of evidence shows that this is not the case,” Cassidy wrote. “The concern is that women will be left with no options to manage pain in pregnancy. We must be compassionate to this problem.”
He added that HHS, helmed by vocal health conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “should release the new data that it has to support this claim.”
Cassidy’s urging came shortly after Trump instructed pregnant women at least a dozen times: “Don’t take Tylenol,” a brand name for the generic drug acetaminophen. The remarks weren’t prompted by any significant new research but are in line with Kennedy’s crusade against vaccines and other forms of modern medicine in his search to explain autism, which has no single known cause.
Trump announced that the Food and Drug Administration will be “strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary.”
The Louisiana Republican doubled down on his concerns during a Tuesday appearance on a local radio station. The “best” study on Tylenol usage during pregnancy and autism doesn’t back up Trump, he told Talk 107.3 host Brian Haldane.
“There is an article out of Sweden ― two million people followed ― and what they did is they looked at someone who had autism and they compared them to a sibling who did not have autism, and they found no association, effectively, between taking Tylenol or not,” Cassidy pointed out, calling it the “highest quality” and “best controlled” study on the subject.
The findings Trump was referencing Monday appeared to be from “a study which found an association,” he said. “Now that’s the key thing: an association. That doesn’t mean it causes it; it just means that it’s associated.”
Cassidy said he’s already heard from one pregnant woman frustrated by Trump’s announcement.
“I was talking to a woman ― she goes, ‘Oh, this is great. Two men telling me not to take the only thing I can take when my back’s hurting and I’m pregnant,’” he said.
“This is the drug you take when you sprain your ankle and you happen to be pregnant,” Cassidy continued.
Though Trump claimed at Monday’s press conference that there’s no “downside” if mothers abstain from Tylenol, a fever reducer, while pregnant, medical experts say that’s false. Untreated fevers during pregnancy carry the risk of increased miscarriage, premature birth and possible birth defects, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) warns.
Cassidy added that an OB/GYN will probably tell patients it’s “safe” to take acetaminophen.
Cassidy publicly wavered on advancing Kennedy’s nomination out of his committee for a full Senate vote, saying he was struggling with the decision because he’s had patients who’ve suffered serious, lifelong health outcomes because they weren’t vaccinated. But he ultimately sided with the rest of the Republicans on the committee, advancing Kennedy with a 14-13 vote.
Last month, Cassidy went on to criticize Kennedy for canceling a $500 million investment in vaccine research.
“It is unfortunate that the secretary just canceled a half a billion worth of work, wasting the money which is already invested,” he said.
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