Michele Bachmann HPV: More Factual Gaffes Than Any Other Republican Candidate

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Mistakes like her statement that Americans fear the rise of the Soviet Union, or her mixing up Elvis's birthday and death day, might be attributable to exhaustion. But other gaffes show a true lack of research and basic knowledge, not to mention shame. Here are five of the congresswoman's lowest moments.

1.  The HPV vaccine causes "mental retardation."

At a Republican debate on Monday, Bachmann attacked Rick Perry for trying to require sixth-grade girls in Texas to get the Gardasil HPV vaccine, which protects against a virus that can lead to cervical cancer. But in a post-debate interview with Fox News, she went a step further than criticizing Perry for governmental overreach. "There's a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate," she said. "She said her daughter was given that vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result of that vaccine."

In reality, there is no evidence that the HPV vaccine has ever caused mental retardation, and Bachmann's false statement could have serious public-health consequences. It is already difficult for doctors to convince some parents that vaccines are safe -- which they are -- and careless remarks by public figures worsen the misperceptions surrounding life-saving vaccinations. (HPV is responsible for most cases of cervical cancer, which kills hundreds of thousands of women every year.)

Bachmann defended herself by saying she was merely repeating what the woman had told her, not endorsing it as scientific fact. But even many of her supporters criticized her, and rightly so: she had an obligation to check her facts before blindly repeating something that could harm public health.

2. The Founding Fathers worked "tirelessly" to end slavery.

In a speech in January, Bachmann praised the Founding Fathers for working "tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States." The problem is, while some of the Founding Fathers -- John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, for example -- criticized the institution of slavery, they did not work actively to end it. Others, like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, even owned slaves themselves. In the Revolutionary War era, slavery was essentially a non-issue.

Bachmann stood by her statement, saying she was referring to John Quincy Adams -- John Adams's son and the sixth president of the United States, who was a child during the Revolutionary War. He did not enter politics in any capacity until 1794, when George Washington appointed him minister to the Netherlands, and he did not hold a major domestic position until he became a senator in 1803. Quincy Adams was not a Founding Father by any definition -- he did not sign the Declaration of Independence or the Articles of Confederation, help draft the Constitution or serve in any way as "a leading figure in the founding of the United States," which is how Merriam-Webster defines the term. Bachmann insisted that he "most certainly was a part of the Revolutionary War era. He was a young boy but he was actively involved." But helping his father with clerical work doesn't make him a Founding Father.

Let's say for the sake of argument, though, that Quincy Adams was a Founding Father. Then, yes, one of the Founding Fathers would have worked to end slavery, because Quincy Adams did become an abolitionist. But Bachmann's statement referred to the Founding Fathers, plural, implying that a large number of them fought against slavery -- and the reality is that, while some of them personally opposed slavery, they did not take serious action against it. Bachmann's claim is false by any measure, and it shows a simplistic, misinformed view of American history.