Former President Barack Obama tore into President Donald Trump on Wednesday for linking Tylenol to autism, saying the claims amounted to “violence against the truth” for the anxiety they’ve sown in mothers and pregnant women.
Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. linked acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, to increasing autism rates in children, without providing new evidence, and warned pregnant women not to take the drug in most cases. Acetaminophen is one of the only painkillers considered safe for people who are pregnant.
But Obama, at a speaking tour stop at London’s O2 Arena on Wednesday, said Trump — who he labeled solely as “my successor” — was making claims that have been “continuously disproved.”
“The degree to which that undermines public health, the degree to which that can do harm to women who are pregnant, the degree to which that creates anxiety for parents who do have children who are autistic — which, by the way, itself is subject to a spectrum and a lot of what is being trumpeted as these massive increases actually have to do with a broadening of the criteria across that spectrum so that people can actually get services and help,” Obama said. “All of that is violence against the truth.”
The White House did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Trump pushed people to abandon the drug while pregnant, directly saying “Don’t take Tylenol” from a White House podium on Monday. It could be used to treat a high-grade fever, he said, “If you can’t tough it out.”
The guidance received some blowback from Republicans, including Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a physician. “The concern is that women will be left with no options to manage pain in pregnancy,” he wrote on X, saying the “preponderance of evidence” showed no linkage. “We must be compassionate to this problem.”
Vice President JD Vance also tried to assure pregnant women that there was no administrative ban on the drug. “My guidance to pregnant women would be very simple, which is follow your doctor. Right?” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “Talk to your doctor about these things.”
