() Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. linked autism and Tylenol use during infant circumcision during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, appearing to reference a study that didn’t specify a link between the two.

Kennedy and President Donald Trump warned pregnant women against taking Tylenol or giving it to young children, saying it could cause autism.

Kennedy has acknowledged that the studies cited do not prove that the medication causes autism, but the administration is still warning people because of the correlation between the drug and autism.

Medical experts have pushed back, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which has affirmed that it is safe for pregnant women to use Tylenol when needed.

Kennedy’s remarks Thursday appear to be the first time he has referenced any connection between infant circumcision and autism.

This claim seems to refer to a study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine from 2015, which looked at ritual circumcision and the risk of autism spectrum disorder in boys under the age of 10 in Denmark.

It found that those who had undergone the procedure, which involves the removal of the foreskin from the penis, were more likely to develop autism than other boys in the study. Researchers suggested a potential link might be due to the pain of the procedure. Researchers noted that they had no data on painkillers or anesthetics used, and thus couldn’t address whether Tylenol was linked to autism.

Other researchers pointed out that the Denmark study looked at correlation, not causation. They also point to other studies that found no evidence to support a link between circumcision and autism.

Kennedy lashed out at media coverage of his remarks.

“At yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, I said: ‘There are two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it’s highly likely because they’re given Tylenol.’ An August 2025 review by Patel et al. directly validates my point that the observed autism correlation in circumcised boys is best explained by acetaminophen exposure, not circumcision itself,” he said on X.

That version study has not been peer-reviewed, according to the site.

Kennedy has made autism a focus of his work, calling the condition an epidemic and promoting his belief that autism must be the result of external causes that have caused a rise in diagnoses.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.