RFK Jr. Suggests Not Enough Teens Are Getting Pregnant, Rails Against Youth Testosterone Levels

For all the right’s bigoted smears painting LGBTQ people as “groomers,” only one political party ever seems this obsessed with children’s genitals and, err, sperm counts.

By Kylie Cheung  |  April 23, 2025 | 2:04pm
Photo: Screenshot LatestPolitics
RFK Jr. Suggests Not Enough Teens Are Getting Pregnant, Rails Against Youth Testosterone Levels

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been proving to be one of the Trump administration’s most dangerous cabinet members, as he defunds, well, everything, relaxes FDA food inspection protocol, and is in the process of creating a registry of Americans with autism. He also has the distinct dishonor of being one of the weirdest.

On Tuesday, Kennedy went on several rants about teenage fertility and the sperm count of teen boys, first at a press conference in which he seemingly complained about teen pregnancy rates declining and then on Jesse “Men shouldn’t eat soup” Watters’ Fox News show. Kennedy’s raising these concerns in the context of his crusade against synthetic dyes in foods, claiming it’s harming kids by eradicating teen boys’ sperm counts—his source for all of this largely seems to be the worm in his brain.

“Our fertility is dropping dramatically. Teenagers in this country have the same testosterone levels as 68-year-old men,” Kennedy said at the press conference, where he announced efforts to regulate synthetic dyes, specifically phasing out eight dyes and coloring by 2026. But it mostly just sounds a lot like Kennedy wants teenage boys to get more ostensibly teenage girls pregnant right-fucking-now.

His remarks come at the same time the Trump administration writ large is aggressively pushing its pro-natalist agenda. At the same time that President Trump, the so-called “fertilization president,” is endorsing a $5,000 “baby bonus” to boost the U.S. birth rate, a top pro-natalist activist—a title that makes me shudder as I type it—recently sent Trump a list of other ideas to compel more births, including awarding a “National Medal of Motherhood” to mothers with six or more children, which reminds of a similar program from Nazi Germany. Vice President JD Vance memorably spoke at the March for Life in January and basically implored every audience member to conceive a child right then and there. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy published a memo calling on the department to prioritize communities with higher marriage and birth rates.

Of course, part and parcel of the administration’s pro-natalist agenda is its anti-abortion extremism, which has so far included withholding family planning grants from Planned Parenthood affiliates and other reproductive care providers across the country, and censoring crucial abortion-related information on federal webpages. For his own part, Kennedy said at his confirmation hearings that he’s open to restricting access to abortion pills thanks to faux safety concerns. 

On Watter’s show, Kennedy declared that “the food our kids are eating today is not really food,” and claimed that, as a result, “We have fertility rates that are just spiraling. A teenager today, an American teenager, has less testosterone than a 68-year-old man.” Continuing to sound extremely creepy, he added, “Sperm counts are down 50 percent and girls are hitting puberty six years early.” Watters incredulously asked Kennedy to clarify some of these sweeping claims, prompting Kennedy to double down: “Testosterone levels have dropped 50 percent from historic levels… It’s an existential problem. That is only when we have obesity off the charts.”

While several studies in the last few years have, indeed, indicated declining sperm counts all over the world, researchers have pointed out that methods for counting sperm have changed so much over the years that it’s not really possible to accurately compare these numbers—let alone claim we have “an existential problem,” or fearmonger about teenagers’ sexual organs. And yet, for all the right’s obsessive, bigoted smears painting LGBTQ people as “groomers” and child sexual predators, only one political party ever seems this obsessed with children’s genitals and, err, sperm count.

Kennedy said his plan to phase out food dyes will rely on the cooperation of major food companies, and that they don’t have “an agreement” but an “understanding.” Notably, no food company representatives attended Tuesday’s press conference.

Like what you just read? You’ve got great taste. Subscribe to Jezebel, and for $5 a month or $50 a year, you’ll get access to a bunch of subscriber benefits, including getting to read the next article (and all the ones after that) ad-free. Plus, you’ll be supporting independent journalism—which, can you even imagine not supporting independent journalism in times like these? Yikes. 

 
Join the discussion...