Kansas’ Roger Marshall, a doctor, weighs in on Trump’s Tylenol & autism claims
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a longtime OB-GYN, said Thursday that he believes “using Tylenol short-term is OK” during pregnancies to treat fevers and pain.
His statement to reporters in Kansas City came three days after President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a White House press briefing pushing an unproven claim that prenatal consumption of acetaminophen — the active ingredient in Tylenol — could cause autism in children.
Without the backing of clear scientific evidence, the Food and Drug Administration is moving to update drug labeling for the common painkiller to discourage pregnant women from taking it.
Marshall, who was a practicing physician in Great Bend before his election to Congress and claims to have delivered more than 5,000 babies, said it was not irresponsible for Trump and Kennedy to spotlight the potential risks of Tylenol usage based on inconclusive data.
“What’s disappointing is that the national media isn’t telling the whole story on what RFK Jr. is talking about,” Marshall said. “What these studies show is that there’s an association between chronic use of Tylenol and autism. It’s not a one-time use. It’s the chronic use that’s the concern. And there’s other studies that says it’s not a concern. So what that means to me is, we don’t know.”
Leading doctors and some of the researchers whose studies were cited by the Trump administration have cautioned that more research is needed to understand whether a causal link exists between Tylenol usage and childhood autism diagnoses.
During Monday’s briefing, Trump asserted that pregnant women should “tough it out” and that “ideally you don’t take it at all.” Despite his claim that there is “no downside” to avoiding Tylenol, physicians have long recommended it as the only drug that can safely treat potentially dangerous fevers during a pregnancy without harming the fetus.
“I think number one is they should talk to their own doctor about what they think,” Marshall said. “Long before any talk came out of this latest issue on autism, I would have told any patient to take any medicine — over-the-counter, prescription — for as short a time as possible.”
Asked whether public officials should refrain from spreading debunked theories about childhood vaccines causing autism, Marshall didn’t answer directly.
“Look, we don’t know what causes autism,” Marshall said. “What we do know is that one out of every twenty boys have it. And I think it’s great that we have a president and a secretary of HHS that’s committed to figuring out what is the cause of it. And I think the jury is still out.”
Kennedy told Trump at a televised cabinet meeting in April that, “By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”
This story was originally published September 25, 2025 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Kansas’ Roger Marshall, a doctor, weighs in on Trump’s Tylenol & autism claims."
