Nancy Mace Suggests Pregnant Women Take Drug Definitively Proven Unsafe

On Bill Maher's show, Mace said, "I’m not a doctor and I’m not giving medical advice" before opining on what people should do with their bodies.

By Susan Rinkunas | September 30, 2025 | 11:44am

Photo: Getty Images Politics

Nancy Mace Suggests Pregnant Women Take Drug Definitively Proven Unsafe

South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace (R) spread medical disinformation on Friday’s edition of Real Time with Bill Maher by suggesting that pregnant women experiencing pain or fever take ibuprofen instead of acetaminophen—despite the fact that ibuprofen has documented dangers in pregnancy.

Her comments came days after President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lied to the American people in claiming that taking acetaminophen during pregnancy causes autism. Trump had the audacity to tell women, “Don’t take Tylenol…fight like hell not to take it” and to only use the medication if they “can’t tough it out.” Medical groups like the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) continue to advise that pregnant patients use the drug for pain and fever because of the risks of letting those symptoms go untreated. SMFM said that unchecked fevers, especially in the first trimester, increase “the risk of miscarriage, birth defects, and premature birth.”

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This started when HBO host Bill Maher asked Mace, who is running for governor of South Carolina, the following question on Friday’s edition of Real Time with Bill Maher. “Now to Tylenol. Trump’s view: ‘Pregnant women, tough it out.’ Your thoughts?” (This part of the conversation is not on the show’s YouTube channel, but it comes at about 40:00 into the episode, right after a discussion about Christians being killed in Syria and Nigeria.)

“Well, it’s not Trump’s view,” Mace claimed, before launching into a bunch of horseshit with a limp little caveat. “There are other pain relievers you can take. I mean, ibuprofen, my understanding—I’m not a doctor and I’m not giving medical advice—doesn’t hurt your liver as much [as acetaminophen]. But Harvard and other research institutions and universities have said for years that Tylenol may…there may be a link, there may be causation, causality. And even Tylenol says pregnant women should not take Tylenol. It’s not Trump—this is the medical community that’s saying this.” Mace seems to be referring to a tweet that Tylenol posted in 2017—which the manufacturer has since said was taken out of context—rather than its own statements after the FDA announcement.

She added, “Just because Trump said it, doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

Not only did Mace ignore the actual medical consensus on using acetaminophen for fevers and pain, but she also suggested that pregnant women take something that’s actively harmful. Ibuprofen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug or NSAID, has risks like harm to fetal kidneys and low amniotic fluid, which can cause poor lung development and pregnancy loss. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says it’s unclear if NSAIDs are safe for use in the first trimester and they can lead to birth defects in the third trimester.

Medical professionals took to social media to decry her comments as dangerous. As one physician said on TikTok: “For the love of God, if you have not talked to a board-certified OBGYN who knows you, knows your situation, and has deemed it OK—unless you have had that conversation—do not take ibuprofen instead of Tylenol for pain in your pregnancy.” He added, “We have a lot of evidence to show that there are dangers with ibuprofen in pregnancy. There’s a potential for miscarriage, it can mess with your baby’s kidneys, with your baby’s heart and blood vessels. On the other hand, there is no good evidence stating that Tylenol or acetaminophen causes autism.”

Mace’s comments on HBO are in stark contrast to a Wednesday interview on Newsmax, where she said, “You’ve got pregnant women recording videos of themselves taking Tylenol, which has now been linked to autism. They hate Trump more than they love their babies … they’re denying science.” I think it’s obvious at this point who the deniers of science are, Nancy

Nancy Mace: "You've got pregnant women recording videos of themselves taking Tylenol, which has now been linked to autism. They hate Trump more than they love their babies … they're denying science."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-09-24T20:07:13.560Z

Mace said on Twitter Wednesday morning that people who believe Tylenol is safe in pregnancy have Trump Derangement Syndrome, which is “is putting kids [sic] lives at risk.” Mace appears to have a subset of TDS where she loves her dear leader so much that she constantly crashes out.

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