The Fix: Phil Robertson’s warning about sexually transmitted diseases was more politically loaded than it seemed

By Philip Bump February 27 at 5:35 PM

"110 million," "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson bellowed at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. "110 million Americans now have a sexually transmitted illness. 110 million?!" It was an apt warning, given CPAC's reputation for post-conference rowdiness.

Robertson's point, in a speech heavy with cultural admonitions, was that America had moved away from Biblical values. America, he begged, "I don't want you to die early! If you're disease-free and she's disease-free and you're married. You keep your sex right there. You won't get sick from a sexually transmitted disease. Come on!" (He's made this argument before, which probably won't surprise you.) Who's to blame? "It's the revenge of the hippies! Sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll have come back to haunt us in a bad way."

Robertson's correct about the figure. The number of total sexually transmitted infections counted by the CDC in 2008 was 110 million, some 36 percent of the population at that point. More than one-in-three -- a rather overwhelming revenge from those hippies.

But most of the infections -- 79 million of the 110 million -- are Human papillomavirus, or HPV. Each year there are 20 million new STD infections in the U.S., and 14.1 million of them are from HPV. This isn't trivial; HPV can lead to cervical cancer. But it's also politically fraught.

HPV, unlike other STDs, is preventable even outside the boundaries of disease-free, monogamous intercourse, thanks to a vaccine that's recommended for pre-teen boys and girls.

That vaccine became a flashpoint in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries. Former Texas governor Rick Perry (R) had mandated the vaccine for girls, but retracted his support for that decision in the face of critique from former Minnesota representative Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum. Bachmann claimed that the vaccine itself was dangerous, but conservatives more broadly have argued that the vaccine leads to promiscuity. (Neither of those claims is true.)

Without HPV, the most common STD would be herpes -- and the number of people with sexually transmitted infections in the United States would be a more modest 31.1 million.

Robertson also made another claim that's worth a more direct debunking. "The three words that you've never heard from a politician: I love you," he said. "You ever heard that? Think about it. When's the last time you heard a politician say, 'I love you'? I wracked my brain."

Robertson, perhaps predictably, seems to have missed all of President Obama's public appearances.

Philip Bump writes about politics for The Fix. He is based in New York City.