On Monday, September 22, women’s healthcare took yet another hit under the Trump administration. According to ABC, the White House House schedule expected President Donald Trump to speak with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to announce “historic progress” on his pledge “to address America’s rising rate of autism.” However, the event took a controversial turn as Trump began warning pregnant women against taking simple pain relievers.
In another colloquial speech, Trump advised, “Don’t take Tylenol. There’s no downside. Don’t take it. You’ll be uncomfortable. It won’t be as easy, maybe. But don’t take it if you’re pregnant. Don’t take Tylenol, and don’t give it to the baby after the baby is born.” The President, who does not hold any medical degrees, made this unqualified statement and shocked the nation. Most doctors advise pregnant women to take acetaminophen based pain relievers like Tylenol as they experience the typical symptoms of a fever or a common cold that could stress the pregnancy. Symptoms like muscle aches, inflammation, headaches, and nausea remain among the most common pregnancy irritants treated by Tylenol. So, many women and physicians feel that Trump’s claim, “there’s no downside” to not taking Tylenol, is dangerous and in poor taste.
Although, as seen in this video of the speech, Trump continued to admit and clarify his lack of knowledge on the subject, explaining, “You know, I’m just making these statements from me. I’m not making them from these doctors, because when they talk about, you know, different results, different studies, I talk about a lot of common sense.” Apparently, “common sense” and science disagree on this subject matter.
Evidently, the President of the United States refuses to believe professionals that focus their entire careers on autism research. No medical research proves any link between autism and acetaminophen consumption during pregnancy, and not from a lack of research, but from directly inconclusive results. Autism in the United States is not a radical 21st century disorder that many conservatives believe it to be. Illustrations by Gustave Doré and 1798 tales of The Wild Boy of Aveyron, show how autism indicators in humans date as far back as the early 1800s among ancient civilizations and European folklore of “feral children.” Autism rates only increase alongside more widespread awareness of the disorder. As science evolves over time, medical professionals can diagnose signs of autism and ADHD at an early age. Due to the increase in medical understanding, in modern society, the masses also know more about autism and ADHD, making it more normalized to report and admit that a child is autistic.
For the Commander in Chief of a nation to make a public statement based on inconclusive medical research and instill fear into expectant mothers is both unacceptable and appalling. Sadly, Trump’s latest claims reflect another assault on Women’s Healthcare, disrespecting medical and scientific professionals across the nation.
Sierra Vista High School History Teacher, Hanna Ferguson, comments on her recent pregnancy experience, “I had a really easy pregnancy and I didn’t feel the need to take Tylenol until the last couple weeks. I had the most pain in my back and sciatica and I was only able to sleep on my side for 30 minutes at a time because it was so painful. I took Tylenol when I needed to at the end of the third trimester when the pain was too much.” When asked about the health of her baby post-pregnancy, she described that, as far as she could tell, her baby is completely healthy with no early indicators of autism.Shayna Christensen, Sierra Vista High School Counselor, had a recent encounter with the Tylenol debate during her pregnancy. She explains, “When I was pregnant, I got COVID very early on in my pregnancy. I had just found out I was pregnant, I was really sick, and I had a 102 fever. When you are initially pregnant, they give you this paper that says, “Here’s all the approved medications that you can take while pregnant” and Tylenol is on that list. When I was going through all that and had the fever, I knew that a fever can be really dangerous too, and I didn’t know what to do. I reached out to one of my friends that is a nurse practitioner and she said, “I really don’t advise you to take it. It’s your choice, obviously, because the fever is a bad thing too, but there are some studies that have shown that there’s a correlation.” There’s a difference between correlation and causation. Trump’s whole thing is causation, causation, causation, but all the medical documents say that there is a possible correlation, based off of several studies that they did, that it could cause autism, amongst other things. I was already at a high risk pregnancy and I didn’t want to risk anything more, so I was like, “I don’t feel comfortable. I’m not going to do it, just in case.” As a mom, you’re responsible solely for what that baby takes, whether it’s what you’re eating, what medications you’re taking, anything. To think that you’re responsible for that is scary, so I chose not to just because there was a potential correlation-which, you know, drinking alcohol is the same thing. If you have a sip of alcohol, you’re not going to have fetal alcohol syndrome, but there’s still that risk that potentially something could happen. So, I chose not to, but then later when my baby was born, he had a tiny birth defect that could have been caused from the fever. I got my fever when I was five weeks pregnant, which is when the spinal cord is developing, so he has a small birth defect in his spinal cord region, potentially because of the fever, my fever. I question if I would have took the Tylenol, would it have not happened? Pregnancy is a lot of different things where one person says, “Do it,” and then the other person says, “Don’t do it,” and it’s really hard to know. It is not really somebody in the government’s position to be saying what you should or shouldn’t do because there’s so many mixed things. Really, you should not be taking any medication whatsoever, unless it’s a medication to keep you alive while you’re pregnant. There’s only so many tests that they can do with a baby in your body because of ethics as it’s technically a living being that’s not giving consent. But, if I was to get pregnant again, I probably still would not take Tylenol, despite the pain,-it does get painful towards the end-because I just couldn’t live with myself if that was the reason why. I just can’t do it. But, I support people that do and I know that there’s a need to do it at certain points of your pregnancy. If it happens in one or two babies, it’s not going to happen in every single baby, so people just need to make the decision.”
