 | ||
 | Elian Gonzalez saga could haunt Obama | |
| Gitmo trial looms in election homestretch | |
| Back at Senate, Clinton treated like royal | |
| GOP favoritism in new IG report | |
| How Hoyer got the deal done | |
| LA Times/Bloomberg Poll: Obama +12 | |
| IN Polls: Prez Race Even, Gov Race Close | |
| McCain's Psychological Benefits | |
| VP Watch: Michigan Numbers | |
| The Charm Offensive Continues |
| A Transportation Stimulus | |
| McCain's Speech in Santa Barbara | |
| A Serious Energy Policy for Our Future | |
| The Imitators | |
| 'Victims' of Cut-Rate Loans |
| George Mitchell, Pete Hoekstra, Jane Harman, Roundtable | |
| A Metropolitan Strategy for America's Future | |
| Domestic Dust-Ups | |
| Is Gay Marriage Inevitable? | |
| The Problem with Obama's Father's Day Speech |
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December 20, 2007
Unmarried Births: Does Anyone Care?
By Maggie GallagherIf a bomb explodes on your head, and nobody notices, did it really fall?
Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control released the lastest data on unmarried childbearing, "Births: Preliminary Data for 2006." Read it and weep, here: www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_07.pdf.
The bad news? Let me quote the authors: "The increases in 2006 in the number, rate and proportion of births to unmarried women were the largest single-year increases reported in these measures since 1988-1989."
Between 2005 and 2006 (just one year!) the proportion of out-of-wedlock births climbed from a record 36.9 percent of all births to a new record of 38.5 percent. The unmarried childbearing rate (meaning the likelihood that a given single woman of childbearing age chose to have a child) jumped 7 percent. In raw terms, 114,666 more babies faced the known hardships and heartaches of being born to unwed parents in 2006.
Almost all races and ages shared the increase. Eighty percent of teen births are now out-of-wedlock, as are 60 percent of births to early twentysomethings and 30 percent of births to women age 25 to 29. The proportion of nonmarital births among non-Hispanic whites jumped from 25.3 percent in 2005 to 26.6 percent in 2006; for non-Hispanic blacks, from 69.9 percent to 70.7 percent; Hispanic nonmarital births jumped from 48 percent to 49.9 percent.
We know these children face a massively increased risk of negative outcomes: more poverty, dependency, infant mortality, substance abuse, school failure, criminal conduct and behavior disorders to name just a few.
What is the public reaction to the largest single-year jump in illegitimacy in almost 20 years? Nothing.
Mitt Romney is virtually the only presidential candidate even to mention the problem glancingly. In his "Faith in America" speech he enumerated the domestic challenges we face in "government overspending, overuse of foreign oil, and the breakdown of the family."
It's not that marriage is completely off the national agenda. In fact there are more efforts now, both public and private, to strengthen marriage than ever before. Both private philanthropy and current government programs are focusing on preventing divorce among existing couples. (The Marriage Comission for example is leading a noble effort to raise a billion dollars for marriage -- primarily marriage education).
Every year the government spends hundreds of millions to prevent teen pregnancy, much of it "comprehensive" (i.e., including contraceptive education). But if you don't use the "m" word, what are these government programs telling the kids to do? Wait until they are 20 before they have out-of-wedlock children? If so, they are a booming success. But are they protecting children?
The left is caught up in family diversity as a goal in itself, dragging the center-left with it. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, for example, recently expanded its mission from teens to include young adults, but declined to even name the actual problem we face, seeking instead to prevent both "Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy."
But "unplanned" pregnancy is not the problem. Wives who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant are not a big social problem. Young adults who do not connect marriage and babies in the first place are. And right now there is no group of adults committed to telling them the truth that for their own sake, for the sake of their child and for the common good, they should wait until they are grown, educated and married before deliberately deciding to get pregnant.
The problem we face is a whole generation of young adults who see marriage as another word for adult romantic love, and can't imagine what exactly that has to do with babies, anyway.
You cannot begin to solve a problem, unless you can first name it.
But who has new ideas to confront the epidemic of family fragmentation that our next generation faces? How can we stand aside from 150,000 new babies and simply say collectively, "We don't care what happens to you"?
