Well slap my ass and call me Mary:

The results of a long-term study of reproductive health, published in the British Medical Journal, have revealed that one in two hundred US women claim to have given birth without ever having had sexual intercourse.

The findings were based on a study of 7,870 women and girls aged 15 to 28, as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which ran from 1995 to 2009.

I was raised to believe that virgin births were the tragic byproduct of lingering on dirty toilet seats ("FOR CHRIST SAKES, HOVER!" my mother used to lovingly scream at rest stops.) But it seems that the reality for these virgin mothers is much more grim:

They found that the girls who had become pregnant, despite claiming they had never had sex at the time of conception, shared some common characteristics.

Thirty-one per cent of the girls had signed a so-called 'chastity pledge', whereby they vow - usually for religious reasons - not to have sex. Fifteen per cent of non-virgins who became pregnant also said they had signed such pledges.

... About 28 per cent 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.

Just another reason why Jen's feminist gift recommendation for Our Bodies, Ourselves is so spot on.

Curtsies to Slog tipper originalcinner.