Kristen Gingrich said for years she blamed herself for her son’s autism diagnosis, even though she followed the advice of her doctor during her pregnancy.

So when the Westbrook mother heard that President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, were attempting to link Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism diagnoses — without presenting new evidence — it made her angry.

“Mothers are being blamed again,” Gingrich, 33, said. “I took a medication, Tylenol, deemed by science to take during pregnancy because it’s safe. This is undoing a lot of progress made by science over the past several years.”

Trump and federal health officials this week said there is a link between the use of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, and autism. The Food and Drug Administration said it will now put warning labels on acetaminophen, claiming a risk of autism if taken during pregnancy.

During a news conference on Monday, Trump said: “If you’re pregnant, don’t take Tylenol.”

Scientists have criticized the move, saying there is scant evidence of a correlation between acetaminophen and autism, and no evidence of causation.

Dr. Steven Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in an emailed statement that acetaminophen is one of the few pain medications recommended during pregnancy because it is so safe.

He said “the conditions people use acetaminophen to treat during pregnancy are far more dangerous than any theoretical risks and can create severe morbidity and mortality for the pregnant person and the fetus.”

Dr. Melissa Bowker-Kinley, vice president of physician and advanced practice provider services for MaineHealth Behavioral Health, said researchers are still studying the causes of autism but that it seems to be a combination of genetic risk and environmental risk factors.

Bowker-Kinley said about 80% of the risk is likely genetic, with other factors — such as air pollution, advanced maternal or paternal age, obesity of the pregnant person and premature birth — making up the rest.

Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist, has attempted to link vaccines and autism, even though numerous studies have proven otherwise.

In making the announcement this week, Kennedy referenced recent research that looked into connections between autism and taking acetaminophen during pregnancy, but scientists say most studies do not make such a link and instead show that acetaminophen is safe to take during pregnancy.

Bowker-Kinley said studies that link autism to acetaminophen can’t differentiate if, for instance, a severe fever or infection may have been the risk factor, and not the acetaminophen used to treat the conditions.

“Acetaminophen is considered the safest option for treating fever and pain during pregnancy,” Bowker-Kinley said.

Helen Tager-Flusberg, a psychologist who studies autism at Boston University, told Nature magazine that better controlled studies are “less likely to find even a small risk” of using acetaminophen.

“We do not think that taking acetaminophen is in any way contributing to actually causing autism,” she is quoted as saying in an article published in Nature this week.

Caitlin Gilmet, director of Maine Families for Vaccines, said it’s disheartening to see Trump and Kennedy spreading misinformation about the use of acetaminophen.

“To try to tie something that complex, the causes of autism, to a single medication, it’s insane,” Gilmet said.

Gingrich, whose son is now 7, said she took Tylenol during her pregnancy, especially during the final trimester when she was having joint and foot pain.

“My entire existence was painful,” she said.

Gingrich, who requested that her son’s name not be published, remembers feeling guilt that she had done something wrong during pregnancy, even if she couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

“I spent a long time blaming myself,” Gingrich said.

If the Tylenol claims had come out when she was pregnant, even though scientists are pushing back, Gingrich said: “I would have been devastated.”