Did U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. say, "Infertility is genetic. If your parents couldn't have kids, then you won't either"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Kennedy ever made this statement, either seriously or as a joke. Variations of this phrase circulated as a joke online for nearly four years before being misattributed to Kennedy.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) by the @nic6867 account uploaded to TikTok on July 15, 2026.
'Infertility is genetic. If your parents couldn't have kids, then you won't either' - RFK Jr
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @nic6867 on TikTok.)
News searches
Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo News (archived here) using the search terms "Robert F. Kennedy Jr." and "Infertility is genetic. If your parents couldn't have kids, then you won't either." No matching reports from credible news outlets were found, and no credible outlet has reported the claim as fact.
However, infertility is a recurring topic for Kennedy. He has repeatedly described the declining U.S. birth rate as an "existential problem." In an April 2025 interview (archived here) on Fox News, he said:
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%.
The interview is embedded below:
Older Origins
The "Infertility is genetic" joke has been circulating on social media for years. The earliest posts found by Lead Stories appeared on Facebook (archived here) and Reddit (archived here) in August 2022. Neither is attributed to Kennedy. Screenshots of both are shown below:
(Image source: screenshots of posts by @Chymamusique on Facebook and by @RavingReaper on Reddit.)
