Let’s Discuss the FDA’s Two-Hour Fake-News Session on SSRIs and Pregnancy

“Pregnant people are already worried that everything they do (or avoid doing) will impact their developing baby,” the executive director of Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance told Jezebel.

By Danielle Han | August 4, 2025 | 12:07pm

Photo: iStockphoto Politics

Let’s Discuss the FDA’s Two-Hour Fake-News Session on SSRIs and Pregnancy

RFK Jr. is not a man for medicine. The bear-dumping lunatic and American misinformer-in-chief has long falsified the narrative around the safety of many vital remedies–including antidepressants. He’s said they’re as addictive as heroin; declared they’re overprescribed; and even linked them to school shootings. The latest course of fearmongering from the Health Secretary—who has worm bites for a brain—didn’t even require him to lift a finger. A tin-pot panel did it for him.

In an FDA panel on July 21st, a gaggle of MAHA pawns gathered to hold an “expert” discussion about the safety of SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) during pregnancy, mulling the idea of a “black box” warning. But it ended up being a “misinformation fest” stuffed with biased psychologists, physicians, and researchers–and was quick to raise red flags.

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“More than half of people with depression during pregnancy or postpartum go undiagnosed, and about 85% don’t receive any treatment,” Sindhu Srinivas, MD and president of the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine, told Jezebel. “Mental health conditions, including suicide and overdose, are among the leading causes of death in the first year after pregnancy and are largely preventable. Untreated depression is harmful to maternal and infant health.”

It’s estimated that between 6% and 8% of pregnant people take an SSRI, and while no medication comes without hazards, the risks are low. The FDA, however, seems to be taking advantage of the ambivalence.

Of the ten panelists, nine had a history of questioning the safety of SSRIs during pregnancy. Among them was psychologist and Joe-Rogan-wannabe Roger McFillin, who suggested that depression is overdiagnosed among women. “Is that because this underlying mental illness that we’re trying to control for… [is] more prevalent in women? Or are women just naturally experiencing their emotions more intensely?” He then added, ever-so-profoundly: “Those are gifts. They’re not symptoms of a disease.” Anything for the ‘gram highlights, huh?

Experts were quick to denounce the phony science used throughout the two-hour session. The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, the National Curriculum in Reproductive Psychiatry, and the American College of OBGYNs (ACOG) were quick to issue statements following the panel. “Today’s FDA panel on SSRIs and pregnancy was alarmingly unbalanced and did not adequately acknowledge the harms of untreated perinatal mood disorders in pregnancy,” said Steven Fleischman, ACOG’s president. “Unfortunately, the many outlandish and unfounded claims made by the panelists regarding SSRIs will only serve to incite fear and cause patients to come to false conclusions that could prevent them from getting the treatment they need.”

And treatment is necessary. “There are risks to the mother and baby if maternal mental health conditions are not treated,” Griffin explained to Jezebel. In the U.S., perinatal depression (PPD) is one of the most common complications for pregnant people, and is a leading cause of maternal death in the first year of a baby’s life. PPD affects nearly 11.5% of pregnant and postpartum mothers on a yearly basis and, according to CDC numbers, nearly one in eight women are affected after giving birth. Unfortunately, the picture’s gotten even more grim in a post-Roe era. In states where abortion has been banned, the number of diagnoses have gone up.

“Pregnant people are already worried that everything they do (or avoid doing) will impact their developing baby,” Adrienne Griffin, the executive director of Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, told Jezebel. “The messages from the FDA Expert Panel contribute unnecessarily to these feelings of stress and anxiety.” The FDA has yet to respond about how it selected its so-called “experts.”

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