The continued weaponization of pregnancy

Women see the Tylenol attack as what it is: a mix of blatant misogyny, mom-shaming, and fear-mongering.

We have reached the point in American politics at which a sitting U.S. president sees fit to decree pregnant women must “tough it out.”

Last week, President Donald Trump announced a supposed link between autism and acetaminophen, issuing the warning, “Taking Tylenol is not good. Don’t take it.” The self-proclaimed protector of women—“whether they like it or not”—and “father of IVF” now purports to know what is best when it comes to prenatal care.

Never mind the immediate pushback from medical experts, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, all of which assert acetaminophen is safe to take during pregnancy.

The Food and Drug Administration initiated the process for a label change that presumably will include some degree of warning, even as it issued a public clarification—“while an association between acetaminophen and autism has been described in many studies, a causal relationship has not been established and there are contrary studies in the scientific literature.”

In a nation all too accustomed to battling a firehose of misinformation from the White House, this particular campaign sent shock waves through the establishment. For many, it is the mix of blatant misogyny, mom-shaming, and fear-mongering: “ We really have a long history of blaming mothers in this country, and we’re seeing that reinforced through the narratives around autism’s causes right now,” Martine Lappé, a sociology professor, told NPR. Said one mother of an autistic daughter, “It’s like living in ‘The Twilight Zone.’” And another mother reflected on the stigmatization of the announcement: “It’s a little heartbreaking.”

Dana Sussman, senior vice president of the nonprofit Pregnancy Justice, conveyed a sobering and broad contextual reminder: “Americans have become totally comfortable with needless pain in maternal health. We have to move away from the comfort this nation seems to have in the concept that while pregnant, people must suffer and sacrifice.”

Beyond the guilt and fear the announcement stoked lies the potential for a next-gen era of political weaponization of pregnancy. To be clear, this is hardly a novel path in this country. Think 1980s headlines about “crack babies” and Black mothers vilified and charged with a wide array of serious crimes, from child abuse, to distributing drugs to a minor, to assault with a deadly weapon. (For more background, I encourage you to check out a new series published yesterday at Ms. Magazine, “The Right to Recovery is Essential to Democracy.”)

The criminalization trend has continued, of course, with abortion bans now a key pretext. New data released yesterday by Pregnancy Justice shows that in the two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, prosecutors have charged at least 412 people with pregnancy-related crimes. The cases span 16 states – Alabama, California, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming—with Alabama (192), Oklahoma (112), and South Carolina (62) accounting for the majority of cases.

According to the report, it is safe to assume this is an undercount, given the vast challenges in collecting this data: There is no centralized database to view arrest or court records across the United States; most charges are brought under common statutes not specific to pregnancy or abortion; and court record systems vary by state or county.

Though state officials like Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton would like the public to think this is the next logical step in enforcing abortion bans, the national statistics collected by Pregnancy Justice show otherwise. Only nine of the cases included allegations pertaining to abortion—such as possession of abortion medication or attempts to obtain an abortion. The most common charges were brought under child neglect, endangerment, or abuse laws—though some people were even charged with murder, manslaughter, and abuse of a corpse—all statutes used beyond their original intent by prosecutors to target pregnancy. Thirty-one of the prosecutions targeted people who experienced a pregnancy loss, treating miscarriage and stillbirth as suspicious events rather than personal medical experiences.

The immediate harms are profound. “Every one of these 412 cases represents a woman who faced investigation, arrest, and trauma, often after seeking health care. Instead of investing in maternal and reproductive health, prosecutors are weaponizing the law, especially in states already facing maternal mortality and infant health crises,” said Lourdes A. Rivera, president of Pregnancy Justice.

The goal? Controlling pregnant women. That is certainly how the president’s warning landed. The climate of fear quickly played out via reports of OB-GYNs, pediatricians, and emergency doctors reassuring terrified patients–and all against a backdrop of a federal government that has abdicated science, defunded medical research, and slashed Medicaid benefits and with state abortion bans leading to maternal health care deserts around the country.

We know that past is too often prelude. And in this case, we all would be wise to strenuously push back on junk science—not just for our safety here and now, but in service of a future that doesn’t create new inroads for punishment of pregnancy.

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf is executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU School of Law. She also leads strategy and partnerships at Ms. Magazine.

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