The most popular tale of virgin birth was supposedly the mother of Jesus, Mary. However, according to a report in the Christmas edition of Britain’s BMJ medical journal, nearly 1% of young pregnant women in the US have claimed to have had a virgin birth.
7,870 women aged 15 to 28 were interviewed by researchers from the University of North Carolina, and it is found that more than 0.5% of them who said they were virgins had given birth with the help of in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
The subjects were 12 to 18 years old when they entered the study back in 1994-95, and through the years, the women reported that they had conceived without the help of a man.
The research, led by Amy Herring, used replies of the women to make a rough timeline of when they started having sex, and when they became pregnant. The average age these “virgins” reportedly gave birth was 19.3 years.
According to Reuters:
The 45 self-described virgins who reported having become pregnant and the 36 who gave birth were also more likely than non-virgins to say their parents never or rarely talked to them about sex and birth control. About 28 percent of the “virgin” mothers’ parents (who were also interviewed) indicated they didn’t have enough knowledge to discuss sex and contraception with their daughters, compared to 5 percent of the parents of girls who became pregnant and said they had had intercourse.
The research also claims that supposedly “chaste” mothers were also less likely to know how to use a condom.
31% of the “virgin” moms also said they had signed chastity pledges, compared with 15% of non-virgins who became pregnant and 21% of other virgins.
IVF makes it possible for women to conceive without sexual intercourse, however, researchers have also found that a small number of these women had in fact reported the date of their first sexual intercourse as occurring after birth. This “consistently affirmed their status” as virgins.
