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RFK Jr.’s Teen Sperm Comments Send The Internet Spiraling
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had people squirming after making a strange comment about teenage boys’ sperm at a White House event on Monday. Declaring America is in the midst of a “fertility crisis” during an event promoting maternal healthcare and the Trump administration’s new moms.gov portal, the Health and Human Services secretary claimed, “In 1970, men had twice the sperm count as our teenagers do today.” “This is an existential crisis for our country,” he went on, also claiming that female reproductive health was being compromised by a “toxic soup” of environmental factors that “young women are walking around in.” It was unclear where the champion of the Make America Healthy Again movement was getting his information. A widely-circulated review of male reproductive data published in 2022 determined sperm count had “declined appreciably between 1973 and 2018” and that action to combat the downward trend was “urgently needed.” However, a similar analysis published in the medical journal “Fertility and Sterility” this January looked at data from 1970 to 2023 and found “no clinically significant decline in sperm concentration among confirmed fertile men and the general male US population without known infertility.” Neither of those studies singled out statistics specific to adolescents though. RFK Jr: "In 1970, men had twice the sperm count as our teenagers do today" pic.twitter.com/LnFrQOYEJX Even so, Kennedy warned that declining birth rates were “a threat not only to our economy, but to our national security” as well as viability of public welfare programs like Medicare and Social Security. The environmental attorney-turned-politician appears to have a special interest in virility, previously sharing the same sperm stat while comparing teens’ testosterone levels to that of 68-year-old men during a stop by Fox News last April. He returned to the topic again come October during an Oval Office press conference about the Trump administration’s plans to make in vitro fertilization more accessible. Kennedy’s ejaculate observation all but overshadowed what was supposed to be the event’s main announcement: a proposed rule that would allow employers to offer standalone insurance coverage for fertility treatments. Online, people weighed in on whether the secretary’s comment was just bizarre, down right perverted, or a lewd distraction from actual health and environmental regulations being rolled back under President Donald Trump’s watch. We grabbed some of the juiciest social media commentary here. Warning: Given the topic, some language might be on the crass side. bruh why is @SecKennedy in the lab counting j*zz when the hantavirus is on the loose?? Well they’re doing nothing about the pesticides and chemicals in our food but complaining to US about the effects. pic.twitter.com/G1ojjobmf3 JFK: "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."RFK: "Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?"RFK Jr: "In 1970 men had twice the sperm count as teenagers do today." If RFK Jr. is not ranting about vaccine conspiracies, he comes up with an even crazier rant about something else.What a disaster that this idiot is in charge of our health and human services. pic.twitter.com/TuNLLn7u7G RFK rambles creepy nonsense about teenagers' sperm count while a room of blank-faced Trump acolytes stare at him and the president struggles to stay awake. America is back, baby! https://t.co/JU8LkHptkB Not long ago, Republicans were concerned about the teen pregnancy rate, saying it was a bad thing.Now they want every teenage girl pregnant.Young people are smart. They don't want kids until they can afford them--& they can't afford them under this administration. The guy who drove 5 hours with a whale head leaking fluid on his minivan is now citing 1970 sperm data. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.