Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton received a brutal smackdown by the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board on Wednesday evening over his lawsuit against the manufacturer of Tylenol over Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s unsubstantiated claims it causes autism when taken during pregnancy.
Paxton, the board argued, is doing everything that the conservative movement hates and resents about liberal trial lawyers, soaking businesses under "dubious" pretenses to make a political statement.
"'By holding Big Pharma accountable for poisoning our people, we will help Make America Healthy Again,' the AG said," wrote the board. "Our people? The people he’s really standing up for are his friends and donors in the plaintiff bar. Their claim that acetaminophen — the main active ingredient in Tylenol — can cause autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder if taken during pregnancy was rejected in federal multi-district litigation in 2023. Mr. Paxton is bringing the claims under Texas law in state court."
The lawsuit against Kenvue, which makes Tylenol, and its former parent company Johnson & Johnson, "notably omits that the Food and Drug Administration has periodically reviewed the evidence of acetaminophen’s neuro-developmental risks over the last decade. The FDA repeatedly determined a causal link hadn’t been shown that would merit a change in its safety label," the board wrote. "Adding a safety warning based on flimsy evidence creates its own risks, such as deterring pregnant women from taking the pain killer and fever reducer when they need it" — and indeed, there is more evidence linking autism to untreated fevers in pregnancy than to Tylenol.
Nonetheless, the board wrote, Paxton "apparently believes women and courts should take orders from Mr. Kennedy," as his litigation "quotes alarmist and unscientific statements by the Health and Human Services Secretary."
In short, the board concluded, Paxton is acting as "a valet for the trial bar out to soak business for political gain and campaign donations. His anti-Tylenol suit is one more reason Texas Republicans would be wise to deny his bid to join the U.S. Senate."
All of this comes as Trump similarly jumps on the bandwagon and proclaims pregnant women should just "tough it out" rather than take Tylenol, something that runs contrary to the broad majority of medical advice and even his own Food and Drug Administration.
