About 1 in 16 U.S. women say they were forced or coerced into losing their virginity ,,,,“If somebody is verbally pressured into having sex, it’s just as much rape.”

The L.A. Times reports:

The first sexual experience for about 1 in 16 U.S. women was forced or coerced intercourse in their early teens, encounters that for some may have had lasting health repercussions, according to a new study.

The experiences amount to rape, the study authors said, although they relied on a national survey that didn’t use the word.

Almost 7% of women surveyed said their first sexual intercourse experience was involuntary. It occurred when they were 15 years old, on average, and the man was often several years older.

Almost half of the women who said intercourse was involuntary said they were held down, and slightly more than half of them said they were verbally pressured to have sex against their will.


The findings were published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

“Any sexual encounter (with penetration) that occurs against somebody’s will is rape,” said Dr. Laura Hawks, an internist and Harvard Medical School researcher who led the study. “If somebody is verbally pressured into having sex, it’s just as much rape.”

You'll be hearing more about this study.