Restricting women's healthcare isn't a game

Yesterday, the president of the United States announced that pregnant women should stop taking Tylenol and other forms of the drug acetaminophen (a word he struggled to pronounce), which is the safest pain and fever reliever for pregnant people to take. He said Tylenol causes autism, which is inaccurate, and referred to people having autism as a “crisis,” which is also inaccurate.

Despite its evident absurdity, this action will have serious consequences. Women will suffer. Some of them will believe the president, forego safe pain medication, and may use alternatives that are actually harmful to them and their pregnancies instead. The new stigma around Tylenol/acetaminophen—which is also the safest fever reliever for infants—will cause even more unnecessary suffering to children. On top of this, autistic and neurodivergent people will face increased stigmatization, and women will be blamed. It’s already visibly happening among some Donald Trump supporters online, and it’s undoubtedly happening privately in homes and relationships around the world.

There will be some pregnant people whose partners and families withhold medicine they need from them because of Trump. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is attempting to print disinformation on the label of acetaminophen while acknowledging that it is “the only over-the-counter drug approved for use to treat fevers during pregnancy, and high fevers in pregnant women can pose a risk to their children.” Some medical providers will confuse and misinform patients as a result of these confusing and misinformed orders. We know that the consequences will be felt, because we have felt them in regards to the medical disinformation and restriction happening under anti-abortion policy, too.

With a presidential administration as chaotic and abusive as this one, it has become a knee-jerk reaction to retreat to memes, minimization, and the blind optimism that this won’t be so bad—that this latest move is so stupid, people won’t fall for it. But when it comes to abortion, that hasn’t been the case. This administration’s anti-abortion policy, which builds on a steady erosion of abortion rights, has a growing body count. And incredibly, some prominent members of Trump’s supposed opposition are still calling to capitulate to the right’s sociopathic punishment of women and pregnant people.

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