the genetic mutations that cause autism don't happen during development in the womb, they are already present at conception. rather, the existence of the mutations before development starts guide the development of the foetus to a defective outcome. that is the correct language - autism is a birth defect.

birth defects are not all bad. some birth defects are beneficial; that is how evolution works. autism is not likely to be an evolutionarily beneficial birth defect.

while some evidence may exist that tylenol use generates epigenetic expression in developing foetuses, although i'm skeptical of this, this could not be the cause of the autism, as the autism is in the child's genome and already exists at that stage in development. this is the mistake that the christian right and other pseudoscientific doofuses can't get their heads around. how could their god make autistic children? they must have some disease that can be cured, in order to allow god's creation to exist as intended.

this shouldn't need to be debunked in 2025.

if you insist on maintaining the mental illness of faith in god deep into the 21st century, you're going to have to face the fact that god made the kid autistic.

i haven't seen any research suggesting that tylenol use may create the defective sperms or ova that produce defective embryos that lead to the birth defect that is autistic children. it's possible. i doubt it.

there is very good research tying this birth defect to air pollution, specifically from car exhaust and from smoking cigarettes and marijuana.