Tough it Out? Been There, Done That 

When I was 7, I fell hard off my bicycle. My knees were scraped raw, and tears streamed down my face. An older family member looked at me and said, “Suck it up.” But sucking it up didn’t stop the bleeding. It didn’t ease the sting. What I needed was the right bandage and the right antibiotic ointment that my aunt quickly applied once she saw how badly I was hurt. Only then did the wound begin to heal.

Black women know this lesson all too well. For centuries, we have been told to “suck it up” or “tough it out” in ways no one else would accept:

• In slavery’s fields — forced to give birth while laboring, return to work within days, and nurse white children while our own went hungry.
• Through sexual violence — when our bodies were exploited to increase wealth for others, and our pain was ignored.
• In workplaces — where we are still paid less than both white men and Black men. In 2025 alone, more than 300,000 Black women lost jobs, erasing fragile economic gains.
• In hospitals — where our pain is minimized, our symptoms overlooked, and our deaths too often accepted. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the maternal mortality rate for Black women was 50.3 per 100,000 births in 2023 — more than three times that of white women.

That history is why the words of the President of the United States sting so deeply. This week, he told pregnant women to stop taking Tylenol: “Don’t take Tylenol, don’t take it. Fight like hell not to take it… There’s no downside in not taking it.” He went further: “If you can’t tough it out, if you can’t do it, that’s what you’re gonna have to do. You’ll take a Tylenol, but it’ll be very sparingly … I think you shouldn’t take it.”

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Pain doesn’t go away just because someone orders you to endure it. And when it comes to pregnancy, untreated fever and pain can be dangerous for both mother and baby. Doesn’t #47 have enough to do without interfering in a woman’s ability to make the best health decisions for her body in consultation with her physician?

The autism debate is complex, but here’s what matters: there is no conclusive evidence linking prudent acetaminophen use in pregnancy to autism. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently reaffirmed that acetaminophen “plays an important — and safe — role” in pregnancy when used as directed and in consultation with an obstetrician.

The bottom line is clear: Black women — and all women — don’t need lectures about resilience. We need expanded access to maternal health care, fair wages, workplace protections for pregnant workers, and evidence-based guidance rooted in science, not slogans. We need leaders who recognize that untreated fever in pregnancy can be deadly, and who respect women enough to tell us the truth.

“Tough it out” has already cost Black women our health, our children, and our lives. We will not be silenced, and we will not be told again to simply suffer. We demand to be heard, respected, and cared for.

Because we are not fragile. We are not naïve. We are not anyone’s afterthought. We are women — fully capable of making our own decisions with our own doctors. And we are done being told to endure what no one else would accept. And for those who have a problem with that, “tough it out!”