‘After the debate was concluded, she also asserted that HPV vaccines cause “mental retardation.”’
I read to that point. As far as I know that was an outright lie. So I read no more.
It isn't a lie:
"Appearing on Fox News after the debate, Bachmann recounted a conversation with a woman in the audience. “There’s a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that vaccine,” Bachmann said. “She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result. There are very dangerous consequences.”"
A rare but documented side effect is brain damage. A layperson might call the results mental retardation.
Everyone seems to be missing Mrs. Bachmann’s larger point is that there’s no compelling reason for government to put its weight behind this vaccine, which is intended to guard against the consequences of consensual sexual behavior (rapes aside) even if it’s “for the chillun.” Not even to get it on an insured list, because that merely socialistically increases everybody’s premium including those who would never touch this vaccine. Mrs. Bachmann is on the side of choosing freedom. It would be better to outright subsidize the poor who wanted Gardasil, than the legal loop-the-loop proposed by Perry.