Around a month after President Donald Trump and his administration made an announcement warning pregnant women not to take Tylenol, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit over the over the common pain relief medication.
Paxton sued companies Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue “for deceptively marketing Tylenol to pregnant mothers despite knowing that early exposure to acetaminophen, Tylenol’s only active ingredient, leads to a significantly increased risk of autism and other disorders,” according to a Tuesday press release.
When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Trump rolled out the new advice about Tylenol last month, autism and Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) risks were cited as the main reason. Trump said “taking Tylenol is not good,” and mentioned the “meteoric rise in autism,” though some experts have attributed this to increased screening for the conditions.
Some research has linked the conditions with prenatal use of acetaminophen. The Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health reported on one such study published this August in the BMC Environmental Health journal.
Andrea Baccarelli, dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and professor of environmental health and senior author of the study, said he discussed the research with Kennedy in the weeks leading up to the announcement. He provided the Trump administration with a statement that said the association is strongest when acetaminophen is taken for four weeks or longer.
“Further research is needed to confirm the association and determine causality, but based on existing evidence, I believe that caution about acetaminophen use during pregnancy – especially heavy or prolonged use – is warranted,” Baccarelli said.
Other experts cited by Audacy stressed that no definitive link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and ADHD or autism has been found.
In a September statement, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists affirmed that it finds the over-the-counter painkiller safe to use during pregnancy. Furthermore, the World Health Organization said last month that “there is currently no conclusive scientific evidence confirming a possible link between autism and use of acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol) during pregnancy.”
According to an article by Madison Czopek of PolitiFact published by Kaiser Family Foundation Health News, “obstetricians have long advised their pregnant patients that Tylenol is the safest option to reduce fever or pain.” Even with the concerns raised by some research, the article said that untreated fevers and pain typically addressed by the drug also pose health risks for both mothers and their babies.
“These risks outweigh conflicting research into possible links between the drug and autism, according to maternal and fetal health organizations,” it said.
Tylenol has also said in a recent Instagram post that there is “no proven link between Tylenol and autism.” Warnings on the medicine label also advise people who are pregnant or breast-feeding to “ask a health professional before use.”
Paxton, however, argues that “Big Pharma betrayed America by profiting off of pain and pushing pills regardless of the risks,” per the Tuesday press release from his office.
“These corporations lied for decades, knowingly endangering millions to line their pockets,” he said. “Additionally, seeing that the day of reckoning was coming, Johnson & Johnson attempted to escape responsibility by illegally offloading their liability onto a different company. By holding Big Pharma accountable for poisoning our people, we will help Make America Healthy Again.”
Kenvue was established by Johnson & Johnson in 2022 and it became an independent company in August 2023. Paxton alleged that Johnson & Johnson violated the Texas Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act by fraudulently transferring liabilities arising from Tylenol to Kenvue “in order to shield their assets against lawsuits arising from the harmful impact Tylenol had on children.”
“For decades, Johnson & Johnson willfully ignored and attempted to silence the science that prenatal and early-childhood exposure to their acetaminophen products can cause Autism and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (‘ADHD’) in children,” Paxton’s office said. “Despite being well aware of this fact, Tylenol was marketed as a completely safe pain medication for pregnant women, violating Texas’s consumer protection laws. The considerable body of evidence demonstrating these dangers was recently highlighted by the Trump Administration.”
Paxton’s office also noted that he previously secured a $700 million settlement with Johnson & Johnson for making misleading and deceptive claims about its baby powder products that contained talc.