Pregnancy is painful. Anyone who has lived it knows: Your body aches, your joints swell, fevers can become dangerous within hours. And the list of medications considered safe is vanishingly short. For decades, one of the few options pregnant women could reliably reach for was acetaminophen, better known as Tylenol.

Now, the White House, standing shoulder to shoulder with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who is neither a doctor nor a scientist — has declared that Tylenol is unsafe because it may cause autism. Let us be clear: There is absolutely no scientific evidence to support this claim. A population study of almost 2.5 million children published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found “Acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability in sibling control analyses.”

Sarah Leonardi is vice chair of the Broward County School Board. (courtesy, Sarah Leonardi)

The effect of saying otherwise is immediate and chilling. Women are told that the only relief their doctors have consistently assured them is safe could harm their babies. The damage goes far beyond the medicine cabinet. It erodes trust in doctors themselves at a time when women’s health outcomes, particularly in Florida, are already in crisis.

The guilt mothers carry is endless. Every bite of food, every hour of sleep, every decision around labor and delivery is scrutinized. Now, women are told that if their child is diagnosed as autistic, the blame may rest squarely on their shoulders: not because of biology, not because of genetics, but because they dared to take Tylenol.

This is layered on top of a system already overflowing with contradiction and shame. New mothers are bombarded with guidance that changes with each headline or Google search — breastfeed but don’t nurse too long, sleep-train but don’t let your baby cry, return to work but don’t outsource your care. Whatever you choose, someone will tell you it’s wrong. Motherhood becomes impossible to “do right” in the eyes of society.

And threaded through it all is the expectation that mothers must martyr themselves. To grit their teeth through nine months without medication. To be praised only if they endure an unmedicated labor, while those who choose an epidural are whispered about for having a “less natural” birth — as if pain is the price of love and relief is a moral failing. The shaming is often cloaked in the language of protecting the baby, even though science shows epidurals — and Tylenol — are safe. Even the natural desire for rest or relief — whether from a migraine in pregnancy or from postpartum exhaustion — gets framed as selfishness. In this telling, a “good mother” suffers silently.

Cruelty, not science, seems to be the point. And for mothers raising children with autism, the message is monstrous. Autism is not a crime, not a flaw to be hidden in shame. It is part of the human condition. To imply otherwise — and to hang that burden on mothers — is an act of calculated cruelty.

Emma Collum is an attorney and women’s rights advocate. (courtesy, Emma Collum)

The consequences of shame are not abstract. Shame silences women. It keeps them from calling their doctor when they spike a fever. It persuades them to ignore pain that might signal preeclampsia or infection. And in a state like Florida, where maternal mortality rates are already far too high — especially among Black women — silence can mean death.

Florida is becoming the testing ground for this kind of anti-science governance. Vaccines are dismissed. Doctors are sidelined. Conspiracy replaces common sense. Snake-oil salesmen promise miracle cures and “wellness” supplements — always at a cost. The Tylenol announcement carries those fingerprints. It is less about health than about power: eroding faith in doctors while creating fear that mothers will carry alone. That is not public health. That is political profiteering cloaked in moral panic.

It must stop. Stop shaming mothers. Stop frightening them out of their doctor’s office. Stop turning women’s bodies into battlefields for political games and private profit.

The message from those in power should be simple: Trust your doctor, care for your body, and know that motherhood is not a crime to be punished. Anything less endangers lives and reveals the true goal: not protecting mothers, but controlling them.

Sarah Leonardi is vice chair of the Broward County School Board. Emma Collum is an attorney and women’s rights advocate.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2025/09/30/the-cruelty-of-the-tylenol-autism-announcement-opinion/