By Laura Santhanam, Public Broadcasting Service, September 16, 2019
A staggering one in 16 women said they were raped by force or coercion the first time they had sexual intercourse, according to a new study of government survey data.
Survivors reported higher rates of unwanted first pregnancy, abortion and an array of other physical and mental health problems, study authors wrote in an analysis published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
What does the study say?
Between 2011 and 2017, researchers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention questioned a nationally representative sample of 13,310 women, ages 18 to 44 about marriage, divorce, family life, reproductive health and more. Men were not asked about the first time they had sexual intercourse, and women with no history of vaginal intercourse and girls 17 or younger were not included in this study.
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