Something has been nagging me for a while–and reading this article: Single, pregnant and panicked—Why so many smart women botch their birth control clinched it for me.

Particularly the story of that first smart woman getting drunk and having a one night stand with a married man? Well, gee, I’ll say it does. No wonder these things keep showing up in romance novels, right? One really should read the whole thing. Look at this:

Nearly half of survey respondents said they don’t seek out information on preventing pregnancy because they know enough already. Yet when the National Campaign tested the same group on their knowledge, women scored 6 out of 11 on average and men a dismal 4.7. Why no urgent need to be informed? Researchers found that women are often passive or ambivalent about getting pregnant, with more than one in four saying, “If it happens, it happens” or “It would be no big deal.”

Even if one add a large helping of salt (after all, this is msnbc not a medical journal or study), those are rather disturbing numbers.

They do say that life imitates art. Reading these stories, one must wonder if it’s not the other way around.