Scientists defend the use of paracetamol during pregnancy

Should paracetamol be avoided during pregnancy, as Donald Trump recommends? Probably not. There was a medical debate on the topic, but it's largely settled as the most serious studies don't establish any danger to the fetus.

A link to autism? This was the main claim made by the US president during a press conference on Monday. According to Trump, paracetamol taken during pregnancy is associated with a "very high" risk of autism in the child.

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Research does not support this claim, which comes amid a political context in which Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is promising to imminently determine the causes of an autism "epidemic." This commitment worries experts due to the complexity of the issue and Kennedy's skeptical stance on vaccines.

Regarding paracetamol, the most comprehensive studies currently indicate that a pregnant woman can safely take normal doses. "Paracetamol use during pregnancy is not associated with an increased risk of autism, attention deficit disorder, or intellectual disability in children," concludes one such study, conducted in Sweden and published in 2024 in the medical journal JAMA.

Where does the debate come from?

However, Trump's statements did not come out of nowhere. There was a debate in the medical community a few years ago. Calls for caution garnered significant media attention at the time, notably a manifesto published in 2021 by around 100 researchers and physicians in the journal Nature Reviews Endocrinology.

"We recommend informing pregnant women, from the beginning of pregnancy, that paracetamol should be avoided unless medically indicated," stated the text, which received criticism for its alarmist nature. The authors justified their warning by the existence of "experimental and epidemiological data suggesting that exposure to paracetamol during pregnancy could alter fetal development."

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These claims stem from several studies that raised the question of a possible link between paracetamol and certain pathologies, particularly autism. One of them, published in 2015 in the journal Autism Research and based on Danish health data, analyzed children up to 12 years old and concluded that the risk of autism was 50% higher when their mothers had consumed paracetamol during pregnancy.

Even in 2025, a paper compiling the results of some 40 studies, published in the journal Environmental Health, argued for the possibility of a link. This study was explicitly cited by members of the Trump administration.

But many researchers believe that these studies can only open up new lines of research due to their imperfect methodology. They provide little insight into the actual mechanisms of cause and effect. For example, might it not be the health problems that motivate people to take paracetamol that actually promote the development of autism?

In contrast, the JAMA study takes into account several factors that could bias the analysis. It compares the risk of autism among children from the same family, given that genetic inheritance plays an important role in this disorder. Ultimately, according to this study, acetaminophen use makes no difference.

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" Some observational studies have suggested a possible association between prenatal exposure to paracetamol and autism, but the evidence remains inconsistent," the World Health Organization (WHO) summarized Tuesday.

Is there really any risk?

As with any medication, paracetamol is not completely safe during pregnancy. However, risks are associated with excessive consumption, especially the damage it can cause to the liver.

"Paracetamol can be taken during pregnancy, but it should be used at the lowest dose that remains effective, for the shortest possible time, and as little as possible," the European Medicines Agency (EMA) warned Tuesday, adding that its recommendations remain unchanged. Paracetamol is considered the safest painkiller for pregnant women, compared to aspirin or ibuprofen, which are absolutely not recommended at the end of pregnancy because they can cause fetal death or birth defects. DANIEL HERNÁNDEZ NARANJO - AFP

Portfolio Journalist