RFK Jr. Claims ‘Our Parents Aren’t Having Children’ in Oval Office Fertility Rant

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raised eyebrows with his remarks about fertility during a press conference with President Donald Trump on Thursday, Oct. 16.

The secretary of health and human services joined the president in the Oval Office to announce the administration’s goal of making in vitro fertilization more accessible to Americans by urging drug companies to lower the cost of fertility medication.

“We’ll dramatically slash the cost of IVF and the treatment and many of the most common fertility drugs for countless millions of Americans,” Trump said during the press conference. “Prices are going way down, way, way down.”

But it was Kennedy’s comments that quickly went viral. The HHS leader lamented the state of procreation in the U.S., saying, “Our parents aren’t having children.”

“Today, the average teenager in this country has 50% of the sperm count, 50% of the testosterone as a 65-year-old man,” Kennedy, 71, said. “Our girls are hitting puberty six years earlier, and that’s bad, but also our parents aren’t having children. Parents who want to have children do not have access. I have seven children. I feel that God has blessed me with that, and I can’t imagine how different my life would be if I did not have that blessing.”

American male virility has long been one of Kennedy’s recurring talking points. Earlier this year, he raised similar concerns while campaigning against artificial food dyes.

“Seventy-four percent of our kids cannot qualify for military service,” he said during an April interview with 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%.”

While some studies suggest a global decline in sperm counts linked to environmental and lifestyle factors, scientific consensus on Kennedy’s claims remains unclear.

In July, reproductive urologist Dr. Scott Lundy told NBC News that male fertility is a “very contentious issue in our field.”

“For every paper that you find that suggests a decline and raises an alarm for this issue, there’s another paper that says that the numbers aren’t changing, and that there’s no cause for concern,” he explained.

IVF has become a politically charged topic since Trump’s presidential campaign last year. The Alabama Supreme Court — following the overturn of Roe v. Wade — ruled that frozen embryos would be legally considered children. The decision threatened fertility clinics’ ability to offer IVF services by criminalizing mishaps involving embryos.

Despite having taken credit for Roe v. Wade’s reversal, Trump went on to label himself the “father of IVF” during an October 2024 town hall, claiming Republicans were leading Democrats in expanding fertility access.

“We really are the party for IVF,” Trump said, per CNN. “We want fertilization, and it’s all the way, and the Democrats tried to attack us on it, and we’re out there on IVF, even more than them. So, we’re totally in favor.”

His Democratic opponent, then–Vice President Kamala Harris, reacted in a post on X, writing, “What is he talking about?”

Later, speaking with reporters, Harris elaborated: “What [Trump] should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying, hoping, and working toward growing a family have been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk.”

“Let’s not be distracted by his choice of words,” she added. “The reality is actually very harmful to women and families in America.”