Free Republic

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has welcomed her second grandchild, Radar Online reported Monday. Palin's son, Track, and his new wife Britta (nee Hanson) became parents over the weekend to a baby girl, name Kyla Grace. Track, 22, married his 21-year-old high-school sweetheart in May in a small ceremony in Hatcher Pass, Alaska.

The attack on the institution of marriage is not only the biggest cultural but also the biggest fiscal issue of our times, and political and judicial attacks by gays are only part of the problem. Marriage is being assaulted by unilateral divorce, feminist hostility toward marriage, the bias of family courts against fathers, and the taxpayer-paid financial incentives that subsidize illegitimate births. Forty-five years ago, a liberal in Lyndon Johnson's Labor Department, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, shocked the nation with a report called "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action." The Great Society's welfare handouts to women were breaking up...

Charlotte Church today showed signs of her strain at being a single mother bringing up two little ones. Charlotte, 24, struggled with a host of bags, toys and bottles as she took her two children out for the day. Meanwhile her estranged fiancé, peramatanned Gavin Henson, has been out living it up, looking relaxed and care-free.

A program operating on the University of North Carolina at Greensboro campus pays young girls not to get pregnant. Participants in the College Bound Sisters program earn $7 a week to stay baby-free. For 90 minutes a week, the girls learn about abstinence and the use of contraceptives while exploring the benefits of staying in school. The money earned is deposited into a fund and may be retrieved once the girl has enrolled in college. The program, funded by a grant from the state's Department of Health and Human Services, costs about $75,000 a year to operate. A total of...

The other day I chatted with a pregnant gal at the hair salon. She was about 20, sweet, pretty, and demure. Because I am always doing sociological fieldwork, I asked my hairdresser if the girl was married. No. But she has a fiancé. As always in these situations, you just want to grab these young people by the lapels and say “Get to the altar! It’s critical for your child.” I didn’t of course — because, while I am a zealot for marriage, I’m not yet prepared to become a public nuisance. I thought of that young lady again this...

ATLANTA – More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than any year in the nation's history, topping the peak during the baby boom 50 years earlier, federal researchers reported Wednesday. ... The birth rate rose slightly for women of all ages, and births to unwed mothers reached an all-time high of about 40 percent, continuing a trend begun years ago. More than three-quarters of these women were 20 or older.

Linda Sanchez has always stood out a bit in Congress. The SoCal Democrat is by far the House's finest comedian -- sharing wacky tales of dating life on the charity stand-up circuit -- and, along with Rep. Loretta Sanchez, part of the body's first sister act. Now, she's poised to become only the eighth congresswoman in history to have a baby while in office -- and the first to do so while single.

Be grateful for small things. Ann Curry didn't call Bristol Palin's baby "illegitimate" or a "bastard." She settled for "out-of-wedlock." Now in fairness, NBC's Curry was in theory listing things for which people might feel sympathy for Sarah Palin, including her own Down syndrome child. But in doing so, speaking with Keith Olbermann during MSNBC's RNC coverage this evening, Curry said the following. ANN CURRY: She has a child who is having a child out of wedlock. View video here.

Italian police have freed a woman who had been imprisoned for 18 years by her family after becoming pregnant out of wedlock. Maria Monaco, 47, was said to be suffering severe psychological trauma after being kept in "indescribable" conditions. She has been taken for treatment to a hospital in Naples. Ms Monaco's 80-year-old mother, Anna Rosa Golino, her 44-year-old brother, Prisco, and 54-year-old sister, Michelina, were all arrested on charges of kidnapping and mistreatment. The police said Ms Monaco's family, who live in the small southern town of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, had "punished" her because she was unmarried when...

(AP) NEW YORK -- Former Spice Girl Melanie Brown has listed Eddie Murphy's name on the birth certificate of her infant daughter, her publicist said Friday. The 31-year-old Brown, known as Scary Spice when she was in the megahit group of the '90s, gave birth to the child April 3 in Santa Monica, Calif. Brown's publicist, Nadine Bibi, didn't immediately respond Friday to an e-mail from The Associated Press asking for details. Arnold Robinson, a spokesman for Murphy, declined comment. Brown has said ex-boyfriend Murphy is the father. The 46-year-old "Dreamgirls" star has said he isn't sure, while Brown has...

Katie Holmes has described speculation about her baby as "heartbreaking" as she finally unveiled Hollywood star Tom Cruise's daughter Suri to the world. Their baby is pictured in Vanity Fair magazine, four-and-a-half months after her birth. The long wait to see the high-profile couple's daughter had prompted conspiracy theorists to question her existence

ANNA NICOLE SMITH put all those rumors to rest -- revealing on her website that she is definitely pregnant! "I've been hearing a lot of gossip in the papers," Anna Nicole said in a video on her official website, www.annanicole.com. "Let me stop all the rumors. Yes, I am pregnant. I am happy -- very, very happy about it. Everything is going really, really good and I'll be checking in and out periodically on the web. I'll let you see me as I'm growing!" According to several reports, Anna Nicole is said to be five months pregnant and her boyfriend,...

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise have welcomed their first child together, two inside sources have told PEOPLE. No other details are immediately available. In late October, barely six months into their romance, an ecstatic Cruise and Holmes revealed that they were expectant parents. Cruise, 43, and Holmes, 27, had made no secret of their desire to start a family together: When asked by PEOPLE last June if they were planning to have children, Holmes smiled and said simply, "Yes." Friends of the Toledo, Ohio-bred Holmes called her perfectly suited to her upcoming role. "She almost seems born for motherhood," said...

Katie Holmes Called 'Stepford Wife' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Susan Hatch Apr 7, 2006 It was only a matter of time. The fabulous Katie Holmes has been dubbed as behaving like a 'Stepford wife.' She has been quite odd since this whole - I wanna marry my dream guy Tom Cruise thing stated. Katie Accused: Stepford Wife Now here come the brainwashing hints. Who better to deliver the story than Page Six. The gossip column asks - What's up with Katie Holmes? *** The once vivacious actress is like a "Stepford" wife ever since she hooked up with Tom Cruise and Scientology....

NASHVILLE: Nashville star Chris Cagle revealed on his Web site he has learned he is not the biological father of his girlfriend's new baby. The singer of "Anywhere But Here" and "Chicks Dig It" told the Nashville Tennessean in August that impending fatherhood had inspired him to quit drinking. Cagle posted a statement Tuesday acknowledging the baby born during the weekend to Tammy Wheeler was not his. "As many of you are aware, I had been anxiously awaiting the addition of a new baby to my life," the statement says. "The baby has been born and both mother and child...

Marriage is becoming increasingly uncommon in Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Sweden and Denmark, say observers. Unlike America, marriage is widely seen as an inconvenience across Scandinavia, providing very few benefits -- social or economic -- and imposing too large a commitment on families. Observers say advances in birth control, the rise of feminism, and the decline of religion have all contributed to the increase in cohabitation and out-of-wedlock births: In Norway, half of all children are now born to unmarried mothers. In Sweden, about 56 percent of all children are illegitimate. In Denmark, nearly 45 percent of all children...