On Sept. 22, President Donald Trump held a press conference with Department of Human Health Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. During this conference, Trump claimed that about 1 in 31 children in the United States have autism (a statistic from a 2022 CDC report), which is up from 1 in 20,000 a few decades ago. He attributes this rise in autism to artificial medication, claiming that certain groups of people without access to vaccines and medications don’t have autism, citing Amish and Cuban communities as examples.
The specific medication Trump blames is acetaminophen, the active ingredient in drugs such as Tylenol, a painkiller and fever-reducer commonly used during pregnancies. Historically, Tylenol is the safest medication of its kind to use during pregnancy; alternatives containing ibuprofen are proven to have risks. Trump claims that acetaminophen is associated with an increased risk of autism, and advises pregnant women to “limit Tylenol use unless medically necessary.” Trump has since pushed the FDA to add a warning on the labels of drugs containing acetaminophen.
Since the press conference, reputable members of the medical community have disproved many of Trump’s claims, which are either inconclusive or inaccurate. Studies show that Amish and Cuban populations have autism rates comparable to those of other communities, refuting Trump’s claim.
To back up the argument against acetaminophen, officials cited a study done by Harvard this year on the matter. While that study states that caution about acetaminophen use during pregnancies is warranted, it also explicitly states that “further research is needed to confirm the association and determine causality.”
Conversely, a study conducted in Sweden in 2024 on the same subject found no connection between acetaminophen use and autism. The “rise” of autism since past decades has been attributed to two factors: the definition for ASD itself has been revised several times to be more inclusive, and increased screenings since have revealed more cases of ASD in children.
