Published July 17, 2026

In mid-July 2026, numerous posts attributed a quote to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. According to a popular TikTok, Kennedy said, "Infertility is genetic. If your parents can't have kids, neither can you."

According to the TikTok video:

Well, well, well. And welcome to another episode of the dumbest quote of the day, coming from RFK Jr. that is the reanimated corpse he be, the guy that bragged about being born on an H train, snorted dirty cocaine off dirty toilet seats while letting a parasitic worm eat his brain, uttered out of his mouth today that "Infertility is genetic. If your parents can't have kids, neither can you." That is a direct quote. From a man who has been quite obsessed as of late with the balls of teenage boys and what resides in them …

There is no evidence that Kennedy said the above quote. We found variations of this quote on X and in humor books dating back years before he was sworn in as health secretary in 2025. As such, we rate this as an incorrect attribution.

We entered variations of the quote in Google, Bing (archived), and DuckDuckGo, and found no authentic video or reportage indicating that Kennedy ever made such a statement.

Earlier online examples of the quote are not attributed to Kennedy at all. One of the earliest variations of the quote we found on X, from Aug. 14, 2022, read: "Infertility is genetic, if your parents couldn't have kids you also won't." Other X accounts, including one labeled as a parody account shared (archived) the same quote days later. 

Another variant of the quote appeared in the 2002 book "Science Askew: A Lighthearted Look at the Scientific World," by Donald E. Simanek. An even earlier version appeared in the 1997 book of humor "Living, Laughing, and Loving Life," by Dan Miller and Jeanne Zornes. We have reached out to Zornes to learn if the quote originated from this book, and we'll update this story if we learn more. 

While he didn't originate the quote in question, Kennedy has long been concerned with infertility issues. In May 2026, at a White House event, he raised the alarm on male infertility, saying:

The fertility crisis for women began in 2007; for men in 1970. Men had twice the sperm count as our teenagers do today. This is an existential crisis for our country. We had a series of presidents who were trying to discourage childbirth and motherhood in this country. We now have a president who is trying to encourage it.

In 2025, Kennedy said on Fox News: "We have fertility rates that are just spiraling. A teenager today, an American teenager, has less testosterone than a 68-year-old man. Sperm counts are down 50%." Experts debunked this particular claim.

An analysis by The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom focused on gender and politics, found that while evidence shows sperm counts are lower than decades ago, it is not clear that influences the declining birth rate in the U.S.

Snopes has covered numerous claims about Kennedy, as well as debunked anti-vaccine talking points he has made.

By Nur Ibrahim

Nur Nasreen Ibrahim is a reporter with experience working in television, international news coverage, fact checking, and creative writing.