All I have to say is, with Planned Parenthood handing out free contraception left and right and/or how it takes about 10 seconds to put on a condom....well, sorry...I forgot, people don’t have to be responsible anymore.
How irresponsible of me to bring it up. :)
“The life prospects for children born into intact families are so dramatically different from those born into single-parent homes that it would seem a gross injustice if it resulted from anything other than the free choice of parents. Actually, it is a gross injustice to the children — even if it is perpetrated by their parents.”
Terrific article. Thanks for posting. :)
Why get married when Uncle Sam and his hapless minions will pay to take care of your kid. No guy could compete with that.
I love Mona but the pro-life movement has become pro-single-Mom movement , example ? GWB single Mom tax credits. Also Powerful/Secret Family courts (for breaking up families, rewarding Mom’s for births) is another.
The disintegration of the family unit started with LBJs “Great Society” and was finished off by The Pill. Minorities this time were struck harder. Free and easy no committal sex sounded so great back then. But actions have consequences.
"Somebody else" will pay to raise the kid.
And it’s so simply resolved: stop the money.
Hispanic Family Values? Runaway illegitimacy is creating a new U.S. underclass.
"Unless the life chances of children raised by single mothers suddenly improve, the explosive growth of the U.S. Hispanic population over the next couple of decades does not bode well for American social stability. Hispanic immigrants bring near–Third World levels of fertility to America, coupled with what were once thought to be First World levels of illegitimacy. (In fact, family breakdown is higher in many Hispanic countries than here.) Nearly half of the children born to Hispanic mothers in the U.S. are born out of wedlock, a proportion that has been increasing rapidly with no signs of slowing down. Given what psychologists and sociologists now know about the much higher likelihood of social pathology among those who grow up in single-mother households, the Hispanic baby boom is certain to produce more juvenile delinquents, more school failure, more welfare use, and more teen pregnancy in the future."
The dimensions of the Hispanic baby boom are startling. The Hispanic birthrate is twice as high as that of the rest of the American population. That high fertility rate—even more than unbounded levels of immigration—will fuel the rapid Hispanic population boom in the coming decades. By 2050, the Latino population will have tripled, the Census Bureau projects. One in four Americans will be Hispanic by mid-century, twice the current ratio. In states such as California and Texas, Hispanics will be in the clear majority. Nationally, whites will drop from near 70 percent of the total population in 2000 to just half by 2050. Hispanics will account for 46 percent of the nation’s added population over the next two decades, the Pew Hispanic Center reports.
But it’s the fertility surge among unwed Hispanics that should worry policymakers. Hispanic women have the highest unmarried birthrate in the country—over three times that of whites and Asians, and nearly one and a half times that of black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Every 1,000 unmarried Hispanic women bore 92 children in 2003 (the latest year for which data exist), compared with 28 children for every 1,000 unmarried white women, 22 for every 1,000 unmarried Asian women, and 66 for every 1,000 unmarried black women. Forty-five percent of all Hispanic births occur outside of marriage, compared with 24 percent of white births and 15 percent of Asian births. Only the percentage of black out-of-wedlock births—68 percent—exceeds the Hispanic rate. But the black population is not going to triple over the next few decades.
She presents an ‘either/or’ argument, when it is an ‘and’ argument.
When you devalue marriage and family, it becomes more acceptable to skip marriage. When you redefine marriage to cover any perversity, why care about marriage?
I’d also point out it is far easier to stop gay marriage politically, than it is to get lower class females and males to treasure marriage. For lower class blacks and hispanics, and increasingly for whites, the NORM is getting pregnant by the latest boyfriend, whom no one expects to marry or care for anyone.
I’m all for cutting off welfare to unmarried parents. Do you want to guess how many people in America agree with me? You could count them on the fingers of one hand...
agenda ping?
When you have adults with no morals you get children with no morals. It seems alot of kids today have no dreams, no direction, no idea how they are going to support themselves. So the only thing they can do in their life that doesn’t require a lot of effort is start a family. “This baby will love me unconditionaly”. Can’t tell you how often I hear that excuse. So they are raising children with even fewer morals or direction.
The US is great for straining out gnats and missing the logs. We let drugs be sold in every town and we worry about talking on the cell phone when one is driving; etc.
Why should marriage be respected when it is just something else defined and managed by the gubberment? How many folks respect their welfare checks?
Freegards
I suspect that after the educational level of the parents, the presence (or absence) of two parents in the child's early life is more of the predictor of their economic and social well-being than the martial status at the time of birth of the child.
And some folks say there is no culture war.
As Congress demonstrates, one does not have to be born out-of-wedlock to be considered a bastard. ;-)
moral clarity ping
I believe it was the early Romans who prohibited several classes of people from holding public office: Those of illegitimate birth (bastards), eunuchs and homosexuals.
While these children had no choice in the matter, bastards were prohibited because, having no sense of their family past or history, they could not be trusted to operate for the good of the culture based on its history or traditions.
Eunuchs (castrated males) and homosexuals because they could not and/or would not sire children and would, therefore, most likely have no abiding interest in preserving the culture for future generations.
While there are a number of exceptions, I’ll let YOU tell me what sort of folks we have in public office HERE.
I suspect America has employed technology to compress into slightly over 240 years what it took the Romans over 2,000 to achieve — total and utter collapse.