Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s attack on Texas Gov. Rick Perry over vaccines designed to protect young women from cervical cancer may be a problem for her, says the International Business Times.

Bachmann went after Perry in Monday’s debate for requiring young girls in his state to get the vaccine, and she said afterward that the Gardisil used in the vaccine could cause mental retardation, the story said:

Bachmann did not offer any scientific evidence to suggest there is actually a viable link between Gardasil and mental retardation.

Of the 35 million doses of Gardasil distributed in the U.S., only about 0.05 percent of individuals who have been vaccinated have reported some kind of side effect, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mental retardation was not one of them.

Evan Siegfried, a spokesman for the Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership, told Politico that Bachmann’s decision to promote a fear of vaccines is “dangerous and irresponsible.”

“There is zero credible scientific evidence that vaccines cause mental retardation or autism. She should cease trying to foment fear in order to advance her political agenda,” he said.

Even Rush Limbaugh weighed in against Bachmann on this one, the story said:

“Michele Bachmann, she might have blown it today. Well, not blown it but she might have jumped the shark today — if she’d have just left it alone on this vaccination thing from last night,” he said on his radio show Tuesday.

After twice making the claim, Bachmann seemed to take a step back by the time she did the Sean Hannity radio show, saying: “I am not a doctor. I am not a scientist. I am not a physician. All I was doing was reporting what a woman told me last night at the debate.”