“We’ve got a lot of stupid people in this country running things.” So noted President Donald Trump, without a hint of irony, during a press conference held Monday in the Oval Office.
While flanked by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, a television personality turned Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Trump spoke of an alleged link between acetaminophen, the pain relief drug most commonly sold as Tylenol, and rising rates of autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder with no single known cause.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists was quick to counter this claim. “In more than two decades of research on the use of acetaminophen in pregnancy, not a single reputable study has successfully concluded that the use of acetaminophen in any trimester of pregnancy causes neurodevelopmental disorders in children,” Steven J. Fleischman, president of the body, said in a statement.
He added: “In fact, the two highest-quality studies on this subject … found no significant associations between use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and children’s risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability.”
Yet a cabal of old men, led by Trump, stood before the nation and proclaimed that pregnant people should not take acetaminophen for pain or fever relief anyway, asserting instead that they should simply “tough it out.”
Officials in his administration have repeatedly wrung their hands over supposed rising rates of autism – though experts cite increased screenings and a newer, broadened definition of autism as reasons for the uptick in reported cases. The peddling of unfounded pseudoscience around causes and treatments for autism, the stigmatizing of it as a fate worse than maternal suffering and childhood death – it’s all reprehensible nonsense.
So is telling women that they must simply deal with their pain – but that part is nothing new.
Indeed, there is a long, documented history of medical professionals dismissing and ignoring women’s suffering, in ways men’s ailments are not. Studies show that our pain is taken less seriously by doctors, nurses and other practitioners (if not outright ignored), repeatedly misdiagnosed as emotional in nature or attributed to weight gain, and treated less thoroughly and expeditiously than the ailments reported by male patients.
But unlike Trump’s dubious claims about Tylenol’s neurological effects, the suffering is proven – especially during pregnancy. Pregnant people endure a wide range of discomforts, ailments and complications, from nausea and vomiting earlier on (or, if you’re like me, throughout), to joint pain and heartburn in later months, as the fetus occupies more space in the body. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Casting those concerns aside – dismissing them as frivolous matters to simply be endured – is not just offensive; It’s also risky. Untreated pregnancy pain can elevate blood pressure, which can negatively impact fetal growth. The same goes for unchecked fevers. And, pregnancy-related difficulties have been linked to postpartum depression in new moms.
Yet Trump stood before members of the press and told pregnant people throughout the U.S. to “fight like hell” against taking Tylenol, as if the discomfort is noble and the dangers of doing so don’t exist.
It’s galling on its own – but becomes even more so when considered alongside the fact that his administration is actively trying to raise the U.S. birth rate, which continues to plummet. Earlier this year, Trump administration officials floated everything from medals of achievement for mothers with six or more children, to $5,000 baby bonuses, all to incentivize gestation.
In light of Trump’s comments this week, those offerings take on an almost Orwellian quality – the idea that pregnant people should shut up and suffer for the sake of growing the nation’s population, before receiving their pittance and a tacky award.
Though, one supposes this is what happens when you have “a lot of stupid people in this country running things.” ◼️
