OB-GYN Trade Group Breaks with CDC and Makes Own Maternal Vaccination Recommendations

The American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) has split from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the first time ever, releasing its own 2026 recommended maternal vaccine schedule.^{1 2}

The new schedule is endorsed by 13 medical societies and health organizations including the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which also split from the CDC in August 2025 after the CDC reduced the number of vaccines on the childhood schedule to more closely resemble Denmark’s.³

“Changing national recommendations coupled with rampant vaccine misinformation are resulting in confusion for both patients and healthcare professionals,” said ACOG president Camille A. Clare, MD, MPH. “It is incredibly important for the public to have access to reliable evidence-based information on maternal immunizations from a trusted source. ACOG is proud to be that source.”¹

In May 2025 under the direction of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the CDC removed the COVID-19 shots and flu vaccines from the routine immunization schedule for healthy pregnant women. On June 10, 2026, ACOG released its schedule, recommending vaccines for the following illnesses to be administered to pregnant women: flu, COVID, Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis), and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).

The organization also recommended the pneumococcal, meningococcal, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B vaccines if mothers have certain risk factors, as well as additional vaccinations during postpartum and breastfeeding.²

ACOG Schedule Lacks Safety Testing

The ACOG recommendations come despite a lack of adequate safety testing in the pregnant population. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) no longer uses the alphabetical letter categories, historically most vaccines used during pregnancy were designated as Pregnancy Category B or C biologicals, indicating that adequate testing has not been done in human populations to demonstrate safety for pregnant women or adverse effects in animal studies, but human benefits may outweigh the risks.⁴

The previous letter classifications were replaced by the Pregnancy and Lactation Labeling Rule (PLLR), which requires vaccines to feature a Risk Summary detailing potential risks, benefits, and supporting data. These are listed in the vaccine manufacturer inserts. The pregnancy risk summary can be found under subsection 8.1, and the lactation risk summary can be found under subsection 8.2 of any vaccine insert.⁴

While the data pregnancy and lactation subsections varies for each of the shots recommended by ACOG, all of them note in subsection 13.1 that they have not been evaluated for the potential to cause carcinogenicity or genotoxicity.

As National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) co-founder and president Barbara Loe Fisher pointed out in public comment at a 2015 FDA vaccine advisory committee meeting, “Maternal vaccination policy has preceded vaccine safety science.”⁵

A survey done last year by researchers at Emory University and the CDC found that most pregnant women and parents of young children in the United States did not intend on accepting all government recommended vaccines, indicating a rejection of vaccine recommendations since the COVID pandemic response.⁶

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