President Donald Trump’s speech at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service on Sunday took a detour into previewing an announcement he plans to make from the Oval Office on Monday about autism.
“I think you’re going to find it to be amazing,” he said. “I think we found an answer to autism.”
Although he didn’t offer any details on what he planned to say about autism, Trump said his administration “won’t let it happen anymore.”
“I think it’s going to be one of the most important news conferences I’ll ever have, and I look so forward to it,” he said, adding he believed Kirk would have also looked forward to the event.
Monday’s announcement is expected to link the development of autism in children with use of the pain reliever Tylenol during pregnancy, along with low levels of folate, a vitamin that is important for proper development of a baby’s brain and spine, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.
It will also name folinic acid, a form of folate also known as leucovorin, as a way to decrease symptoms of autism.
Folate supplements are already recommended during pregnancy to prevent neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, in infants.
Tylenol, which is the brand name of the generic pain reliever acetaminophen, is widely used in the US, including during pregnancy. Health officials are planning to warn women against using the medication early in a pregnancy unless they have a fever, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
Tylenol maker Kenvue said earlier this month that it had engaged in a “scientific exchange” on the issue with US Department of Health and Human Services officials, and urged pregnant women to speak with their health care provider before taking any over-the-counter medication.
“Acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women as needed throughout their entire pregnancy,” the company said in a statement Sunday. “Without it, women face dangerous choices: suffer through conditions like fever that are potentially harmful to both mom and baby or use riskier alternatives.”
“The facts are that over a decade of rigorous research, endorsed by leading medical professionals and global health regulators, confirms there is no credible evidence linking acetaminophen to autism. We stand with the many public health and medical professionals who have reviewed this science and agree. We will continue to explore all options to protect the health interests of American women and children.”
Experts generally agree.
“There is no clear evidence that proves a direct relationship between the prudent use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and fetal developmental issues,” Dr. Christopher Zahn, chief of clinical practice for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in a statement. “Neurodevelopmental disorders, in particular, are multifactorial and very difficult to associate with a singular cause. Pregnant patients should not be frightened away from the many benefits of acetaminophen, which is safe and one of the few options pregnant people have for pain relief.”
Untreated fever and pain during pregnancy can carry their own risks for both mother and infant, including miscarriage, birth defects and high blood pressure, according to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
The incidence of autism in the US is on the rise. About 1 in every 31 children was diagnosed with autism by age 8 in 2022, up from 1 in 36 in 2020, according to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published in April.
There are two primary reasons for the increase, according to Dr. Christine Ladd-Acosta, vice director of the Wendy Klagg Center for Autism at John Hopkins.
The first is that the definition of autism was broadened by the psychiatric community in 2013, so more people now qualify for an autism diagnosis.
Secondly, there has been a push for better screening of children, especially babies, for signs of autism. That push for increased awareness of the symptoms has been accompanied by a greater acceptance of the disorder, so people are not as afraid to seek help or to be identified as having autism, Ladd-Acosta said on the Johns Hopkins podcast “Public Health on Call.”
Experts generally agree that there is no clear evidence directly linking autism with acetaminophen use during pregnancy. – Kylie Cooper/Reuters
Several studies have looked at the association between acetaminophen use in pregnancy and the development of autism in children, but experts say the science behind this theory is not settled.
A 2024 study published in JAMA looked at more than 2 million children born in Sweden between 1995 and 2019, about 185,000 of whom were born to mothers who used acetaminophen during pregnancy. The study compared autism rates between these children with their siblings and with children who were not exposed, and it found that acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with an increased risk of autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or other neurodevelopmental disorders.
A meta-analysis published in August in the journal BMC Environmental Health looked at 46 studies on the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders in children. Six of the studies looked specifically at acetaminophen and autism. Overall, the analysis concluded that there was “strong evidence of an association” between taking acetaminophen during pregnancy and the development of autism in children, but the authors caution that their paper can show only associations, not that acetaminophen causes autism.
“We recommend judicious acetaminophen use — lowest effective dose, shortest duration — under medical guidance, tailored to individual risk–benefit assessments, rather than a broad limitation,” the researchers wrote.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has previously promoted debunked theories linking vaccines to autism, and he pledged in April that his agency would have answers this month on the causes of autism. Thousands of researchers from top universities and institutions have applied for federal funding for autism research that Kennedy announced in April, and the US National Institutes of Health is expected this month to announce up to 25 awardees for the $50 million effort.
“We’re finding … certain interventions now that are clearly, almost certainly causing autism, and we’re going to be able to address those in September,” Kennedy said in a Cabinet meeting last month, to which Trump responded, “There has to be something artificial causing this, meaning, a drug or something.”
Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrician who co-directs the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, said the published evidence on links between acetaminophen and autism is “not terribly compelling.”
“We can explain just about all of [autism spectrum disorder] through the autism genes. However there is also a role for certain environmental exposures in early pregnancy because it interacts with autism genes,” he wrote in a social media post Sunday.
“To focus an entire press conference just on Tylenol would be reckless in my opinion without additional info,” said Hotez, who has a daughter with autism and has written a book about the condition. “As for leucovorin, again maybe for one or more types of autism but not for a spectrum linked to >100 genes. It would be like saying only one thing causes cancer and now there’s a cure.”
CNN’s Meg Tirrell and Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report.
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