States Need to Address Trump’s Stance on Science and Reproductive Health

The Trump administration’s recent wave of medical claims regarding reproductive health has sparked concern among healthcare professionals and advocates, who warn that these statements contradict established medical consensus and threaten women’s health services nationwide.

At a September 22 White House press conference, President Donald Trump, accompanied by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz, advised pregnant women against taking acetaminophen—the active ingredient in Tylenol. Trump claimed without evidence that the widely used pain reliever causes autism in children, stating flatly, “I think you shouldn’t take it, and you shouldn’t take it during the entire pregnancy.”

Medical organizations quickly rebuked this assertion, emphasizing that untreated fever during pregnancy can lead to serious complications including fetal heart defects and brain damage. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other leading medical groups maintain that acetaminophen, when used as directed, remains the safest option for pain management during pregnancy.

This unfounded claim about Tylenol follows a pattern of medically questionable announcements from administration officials. On September 19, Kennedy and FDA head Marty Makary launched a “safety review” of mifepristone, a medication used for early pregnancy termination that has been FDA-approved since 2000.

The review appears to disregard over 100 peer-reviewed studies confirming mifepristone’s safety record across its use by 7.5 million American women. Instead, it relies heavily on a single non-peer-reviewed report from an anti-abortion organization that medical researchers have criticized as “methodologically flawed and based on unverified and unreliable data.”

In a separate action affecting international health services, the administration ordered the destruction of $9.7 million worth of contraceptives purchased through USAID that were intended for distribution in low-income countries. The contraceptives—including 2 million packets of birth control pills and nearly 2 million doses of injectable contraceptives—were labeled as “abortifacient birth control” in official statements, despite medical consensus that hormonal contraceptives prevent pregnancy rather than terminate it.

Domestically, recent legislative changes have blocked patients from using Medicaid at Planned Parenthood for basic healthcare services including cancer screenings, STI testing, and contraception. This restriction has effectively defunded the organization, resulting in clinic closures that have left over a million low-income women without access to these services.

While cutting funding for established healthcare providers, the administration has redirected hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), a $1.7 billion industry that has been criticized by medical associations for spreading inaccurate information about contraception, pregnancy, and abortion. Medical experts point out that pregnancy carries roughly 14 times greater risk than abortion procedures.

In response to federal policy shifts, states have begun forming coalitions to defend evidence-based healthcare information. The Northeast Public Health Collaborative—comprising seven states and New York City—was established in September to counter vaccine misinformation and has already issued vaccination guidelines that differ from those developed by Kennedy’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Building on this model, fifteen Democratic governors recently launched the Governors Public Health Alliance to address the broader issue of medical misinformation. Dr. Michelle Morse, acting health commissioner of New York City, explained the coalition’s purpose: “The collaborative is working together to rebuild public trust and provide factual information, so people can make informed decisions about their health.”

Healthcare advocates are now calling for these state coalitions to expand their focus to include reproductive health information and access. They point to innovative state-level approaches like Massachusetts’ strategies for countering deceptive practices by crisis pregnancy centers and Illinois’ HB 3637, which allows clinicians to continue prescribing mifepristone regardless of potential federal policy changes.

“When our states speak in concert, our voice carries farther, and our impact deepens,” said Massachusetts commissioner of public health Robbie Goldstein, highlighting the potential influence of coordinated state action in defending evidence-based healthcare against what critics describe as an escalating assault on women’s reproductive health services.