"On Monday, Donald Trump, flanked by Robert F Kennedy Jr and the former talkshow host and head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dr Mehmet Oz, announced that women should avoid paracetamol (known as acetaminophen or by the brand name Tylenol in the US) throughout pregnancy because of a spurious link with childhood autism. This political theatre highlights a longstanding and harmful problem: pregnant women, and their babies, are routinely let down by partial, poor-quality and missing medical evidence."
"Compounding the problem, Trump's announcement centred women's choices as the driver of childhood outcomes. Only if you can't tough it out as a pregnant woman, should you resort to treating your own pain and fever, Trump advised. This mistakenly and cruelly pitches women's needs against the best interests of their baby, rather than seeing a mother and foetus as interdependent."
Donald Trump, flanked by Robert F Kennedy Jr and Dr Mehmet Oz, advised women to avoid paracetamol during pregnancy citing a spurious link with childhood autism. The announcement exemplifies how partial, poor-quality and missing medical evidence routinely fails pregnant women and their babies. Framing women's choices as the primary driver of childhood outcomes pits maternal needs against fetal interests and risks creating unjust blame. Many women will face unsubstantiated concerns about how routine choices might endanger pregnancy. High-quality research, including a 2024 study of 2.5 million births in Sweden, found no association between maternal paracetamol use and childhood neurodiversity after accounting for confounders.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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