Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy is calling on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to release any data supporting the idea that Tylenol is linked to autism.
“I understand and applaud President Trump’s desire to address this issue and to support HHS. HHS should release the new data that it has to support this claim,” Cassidy said in a social media post. “The preponderance of evidence shows that this is not the case.”
“The concern is that women will be left with no options to manage pain in pregnancy,” Cassidy continued in his Monday post. “We must be compassionate to this problem.”
Cassidy chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and his comments followed a press conference Monday in which President Donald Trump said that “taking Tylenol is not good” and that pregnant women should only take the drug if “medically necessary.” The new directives contradict current medical advice stating that acetaminophen, Tylenol’s active ingredient, is a safe pain reliever for pregnant women. No causal relationship between acetaminophen and autism has been established.
Cassidy, a physician, expressed concern earlier this month about the potential of the Trump administration reaching such a conclusion, as the White House’s Make America Healthy Again Commission was set to release a strategy report of factors that Kennedy says are contributing to the rising rates of autism.
“Show me what the conclusions are,” Cassidy told reporters on Sept. 9 ahead of the report. “I mean, if the conclusions are truly reflecting the best understanding of the medical literature, you have a lot of confidence. If it is saying things like the thimerosal causes autism, or that Tylenol causes autism, well that’s, of course, bogus.”
“[There’s] a lot of data showing that’s not the case, then I would suggest that’s probably not valid,” Cassidy added.
The Trump administration has for months prioritized figuring out the cause of autism. During a press conference centered on autism rates in April, Kennedy promised to determine the key environmental cause of autism, and “figure out a way to make pressure on [industries] to remove it.”
Cassidy’s comments pushing back on a link between Tylenol and autism are the latest beat in an uneasy relationship between Cassidy and the Trump administration, who have often been at odds over health policy.