(LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and other top administration officials announced a series of steps and early successes in identifying the root causes of the meteoric rise in autism cases in children in recent decades. They also identified a promising drug for its treatment.
From the outset of his current administration, President Trump has made the prevention and improved treatment of autism an all-hands-on-deck priority.
“Effective immediately, the FDA will be notifying physicians that the use of acetaminophen — commonly known as Tylenol — during pregnancy can be associated with a risk of increase of autism,” Trump said. “For this reason, they are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy.”
“Taking Tylenol is not good,” said Trump, who emphasized, “I’ll say it. It’s not good.”
Kennedy, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), expanded on the President’s comments.
“To meet the president’s challenge, I ordered HHS to launch an unprecedented, all-agency effort to identify all causes of autism, including toxic and pharmaceutical exposures,” Kennedy said.
“At President Trump’s urging, NIH (the National Institute of Health), FDA (the Food and Drug Administration), the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), and CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) are turning over every stone to identify the (causes) of the autism epidemic and how patients and parents can prevent and reverse this alarming trend,” Kennedy said.
“We have broken down the traditional silos that have long separated these agencies and we have fast-tracked research and guidance,” he explained.
“Historically, NIH has focused almost solely on politically safe and entirely fruitless research about the genetic drivers of autism,” Kennedy noted. “That would be like studying the genetic drivers of lung cancer without looking at cigarettes.”
“That’s what NIH has been doing for 20 years,” he added. “As a result, we don’t have an answer to this critical question, despite the cataclysmic impact of the epidemic on our nation’s children. We are now replacing the institutional culture of politicized science and corruption with evidence-based medicine.”
“The FDA is responding to clinical and laboratory studies that suggest potential association between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse developmental outcomes, including later diagnoses for ADHD and autism,” Kennedy noted.
“Today, the FDA will issue a physicians’ notice about the risk of acetaminophen during pregnancy and begin the process to initiate a safety label change,” he said.
“Thanks also to the politicization of science, the safety of acetaminophen against the risk of early developmental disorders in young children has never been validated,” Kennedy explained.
Kennedy also noted that research has shown that a folate deficiency in a child’s brain can lead to autism.
Research has indicated that up to 60% of folate-deficient children can improve verbal communication if given Leucovorin, a form of folinic acid, currently approved by the FDA to counteract side effects of chemotherapy drugs.
“Forty to 70 percent of mothers who have children with autism believe that her child was injured by a vaccine,” Kennedy said. “President Trump believes that we should be listening to these mothers instead of gaslighting and marginalizing them like prior administrations.”
“We will be uncompromising and relentless in our search for answers” he promised.
President Trump Makes an Announcement on Medical and Scientific Findings for America’s Children https://t.co/aTq90Js06I
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 22, 2025
In an op-ed published at Politico as the White House press conference began, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz outlined the bold new initiatives the Trump administration is taking to finally tackle the autism epidemic amid its dramatic rise in prevalence over the past two decades.
“President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. challenged us to break down the walls between our agencies so we can rapidly address the health crises facing the American people,” the trio wrote. “Today, we announce an approach to provide relief for children on the autism spectrum.”
“This administration’s bold action — opening the door to the first FDA-recognized treatment for autism, confronting environmental and medical risk factors, and investing in groundbreaking research — follows the science, restores trust and will deliver hope to millions of families,” the three administration officials wrote. “The nearly five-fold increased prevalence of autism in recent decades demands a rapid response — with prompt research and by acting on information as it becomes available.”
During the press conference, Bhattacharya vowed to “turbocharge” autism research.
“The sharp rise in the prevalence of autism deserves an urgent response by the scientific community,” Bhattacharya said.
“This is the start of a historic shift in medical culture,” Makary said.
Oz promised that this is just the “first of several chapters.”
