Sep 19, 2025 - Health
Vaccines and Tylenol in pregnancy: What to know
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The U.S. Health Department is raising alarms about medications taken during pregnancy — even as leading medical groups say they're safe.
Why it matters: Mixed messages strain doctor-patient trust, which can delay care and put pregnant patients and babies at risk.
What they're saying: When HHS floats a link between something like Tylenol and autism, "it's on the patient's shoulders" to confront their doctor, says Jane van Dis, an OB hospitalist.
- That leaves providers explaining themselves, and puts patients in the middle, choosing which message to trust. "It obviously opens the door for a lot of conspiracy theories," she tells Axios.
Medications in the spotlight include:
The COVID vaccine.
- Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy announced in May that the CDC was no longer recommending the COVID vaccine for healthy pregnant women. And this week, his vaccine panel dropped the broad COVID shot recommendation.
- Yes, but: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says data shows COVID vaccination lowers pregnancy risks and protects both mother and baby from severe illness.
- ACOG also recommends vaccines for the flu, RSV and whooping cough, because "moms are able to pass their immunity through the placenta over to their baby," says ACOG representative Veronica Gillispie-Bell. "Not only is it not harmful, but it is helpful for the baby."
Tylenol.
- Reports say Kennedy plans to link the use of Tylenol during pregnancy to autism, in an upcoming paper.
- Yes, but: ACOG maintains that Tylenol's active ingredient acetaminophen is one of the only safe pain relievers to use while pregnant.
- And it's critical, since "fever can be detrimental in pregnancy," says Gillispie-Bell. Studies on prenatal Tylenol use and autism have relied on observational data — showing association but not definitive causation — or concluded there's no connection.
SSRIs.
- An FDA roundtable raised concerns about these antidepressants, suggesting fetal risks and a problem with overprescribing.
- Yes, but: ACOG pushed back, citing "robust evidence" that SSRIs are safe in pregnancy, and most "do not increase the risk of birth defects."
- Gillispie-Bell emphasizes that the risk of untreated depression in moms could be fatal, and points to a new report that mental health conditions are the leading cause of pregnancy-related death — which was on the CDC site and has since been archived.
Go deeper: COVID vaccine rules by state.
