From the pulpit of the presidency, Donald Trump offered some advice to pregnant women: 鈥淭ough it out鈥 before taking Tylenol.
Nine times in all, flanked by four other men, Trump said expectant mothers should suffer through their discomfort instead of reaching for acetaminophen 鈥 or paracetamol in countries outside the U.S. 鈥 to cure their fevers or headaches, despite the drug being one of the few painkillers that pregnant women are allowed to take.
鈥淔ight like hell not to take it,鈥 Trump instructed at a Monday news conference meant to address autism. He added that if pregnant women absolutely have to take Tylenol, that鈥檒l be something that they 鈥渨ork out with themselves.鈥
What many women and experts heard was the latest example of a man telling women how much physical pain they should endure 鈥 and an age-old effort to blame mothers for their babies鈥 autism.
鈥淗is use of 鈥榯ough it out鈥 really was infuriating because it dismissed women鈥檚 pain and the real danger that exists with fever and miscarriage during pregnancy,鈥 said women鈥檚 rights advocate and social media influencer Amanda Tietz, a 46-year-old mom of three in Wisconsin, in an email. 鈥淣ot to mention the pain we can experience in pregnancy that can be debilitating.鈥
Others saw a bunch of men opining 鈥 again, without evidence that maternal use of Tylenol causes autism or ADHD in children 鈥 on mothers, children with disabilities and their health at a time when studies show pain by women is frequently dismissed. Women’s health and their autonomy are especially fraught issues in the wake of the to strip away constitutional protections for abortion, a deeply personal change for Americans nearly a half century after Roe v. Wade. The debate now roils state legislatures nationwide.
鈥淵esterday 5 powerful men stood together in the WH and shamed: Pregnant women, told to 鈥榯ough it out鈥 through pain; Moms of autistic kids, blamed for their child鈥檚 condition; Autistic people, called broken & in need of fixing,鈥 Trump鈥檚 former surgeon general, Jerome Adams, on social media. 鈥淐an we all be kinder and less stigmatizing?鈥
Dr. Nicole B. Saphier of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said pregnant women generally are advised to take acetaminophen only under medical supervision, when necessary and at the lowest effective dose. But equally important 鈥 and missing from Trump’s message 鈥 was that untreated fever or severe pain can also pose serious risks to mothers and babies, she said.
鈥淔or decades, women have endured a paternalistic tone in medicine. We’ve moved past dismissing symptoms as 鈥榟ysteria,’鈥 Saphier, who also is a Fox News medical contributor, wrote in an email. 鈥淭he President’s recent comments on Tylenol in pregnancy are a prime example. Advising moderation was sound; delivering it in a patronizing, simplistic way was not.鈥
Trump is not known for a delicate touch around policy where women are concerned. Ahead of the 2016 election, he erupted over tough questioning by telling CNN: 鈥淵ou can see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.鈥 He’s got a for female opponents that includes put-downs about their appearance, their emotional stability and their intelligence.
There’s a long history of men holding forth, sometimes incorrectly, about women’s reproductive health. Former Missouri Republican Rep. Todd Akin sank his 2012 U.S. Senate campaign with remarks about what constituted Others have erred by suggesting publicly and falsely that rape victims can’t get pregnant.
History offers a long list of men making medical policy for women based on the beliefs of their time 鈥 and, some say, suspicion about the power of women to create and shape their unborn babies. A nearly half-century-old theory, long discredited, held that 鈥渞efrigerator mothers鈥 鈥 cold or distant figures 鈥 were responsible for their children’s autism.
Trump’s advice 鈥渢ook me straight back to when moms were blamed for autism,鈥 said Alison Singer, founder of the Autism Science Foundation. 鈥淗e basically said, if you can鈥檛 take the pain, if you can’t deal with the fever, then it鈥檚 your fault.鈥
Trump’s 鈥渢ough it out鈥 advice is familiar to Mary E. Fissell, a professor of medical history with Johns Hopkins University. 鈥淚t’s the classic blame-the-mother ...over and over again,鈥 she said. The 鈥渕aternal imagination,鈥 for example, was a principle once thought to influence the way a baby forms.
鈥淚t’s the idea that what a pregnant woman desires or feels or imagines will shape the form of her unborn child,鈥 said Fissell, who focuses on 17th- and 18th-century medical history.
Trump offered at least one moment of introspection during his news conference, acknowledging the awkward nature of his directive.
鈥淵ou know, it鈥檚 easy for me to say tough it out,鈥 the president allowed. 鈥淏ut sometimes in life or a lot of other things, you have to tough it out also.鈥
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