ATLANTA - A new government study suggests a lot of teenage girls are clueless about their chances of getting pregnant.
In a survey of thousands of teenage mothers who had unintended pregnancies, about a third who did not use birth control said the reason was they did not believe they could become pregnant.
Why they thought that is not clear. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey did not ask teens to explain.
But other researchers have talked to teenage mothers who believed they could not get pregnant the first time they had sex, did not think they could get pregnant at that time of the month, or thought they were sterile.
“This report underscores how much misperception, ambivalence, and magical thinking put teens at risk for unintended pregnancy,’’ said Bill Albert, a spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
The researchers interviewed nearly 5,000 teenage girls in 19 states who gave birth after unplanned pregnancies in 2004 through 2008.