INCREASE IN UNMARRIED CHILDBEARING: US & OTHER COUNTRIES
By
NWV News writer Jim Kouri
Posted 1:00 AM Eastern
May 24, 2009
© 2009 NewsWithViews.com
NewsWithViews.com dispatched a reporter to cover a Centers for Disease Control press teleconference regarding a disturbing trend within the United States and Western Civilization in general.
The proportion of births to unmarried mothers in the United States has risen steeply over the past few decades, consistent with patterns in other countries, a report from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics shows.
In March, CDC reported that about 4 in 10 births in the United States in 2007 were to unmarried mothers. While a great deal of focus has been placed on births to unmarried teens, 6 out of 10 births to women between the ages of 20 and 24 were among unmarried women in 2007.
The trend in unmarried childbearing was fairly stable from the mid-1990s to 2002, but has shown a steep increase between 2002 and 2007. Between 1980 and 2007, the proportion of births to unmarried women in the United States has more than doubled, from 18 percent to 40 percent.
"We are witnessing a trend that not only impacts upon the US and Western society, but also decreases the chances for numerous women to lead productive lives. My fear is that the abortionists will point to these data to support their position," said political strategist Mike Baker.
"While my reading of the CDC report reveals the US is still behind countries such as Britain and France as far as unwed mothers, it won't be long before we on at a par or even exceed these socialist-leaning nations," Baker said in an interview with Newswithviews.com.
The CDC report, “Data Brief #18: Changing Patterns of Non-marital Childbearing in the U.S.,” includes a section on international comparisons.
That section shows the U.S. percentage of out-of-wedlock births falls into the middle range among the countries studied (data for Iceland, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, and Canada are for 2006).
•
Iceland (66 percent), Sweden (55 percent), Norway (54 percent), France
(50 percent), Denmark (46 percent) and the United Kingdom (44 percent)
all have higher proportions of births to unmarried mothers than the
United States.
• Ireland (33 percent), Germany and Canada (30
percent), Spain (28 percent), Italy (21 percent) and Japan (2 percent)
have lower percentages than the United States.
• The Netherlands (40 percent) has the same percentage
of out-of-wedlock births as the United States but its percentage is
10 times higher than in 1980, when only 4 percent of Netherlands’
births were to unmarried mothers.
• All countries examined showed substantial increases
in the proportion of births to unmarried mothers between 1980 and 2007.
The countries with the biggest increases, after the Netherlands, are
Spain (4 percent to 28 percent), Ireland (5 percent to 33 percent),
and Italy (4 percent to 21 percent).
The report also looks in depth at U.S. birth rates among unmarried women by age, race and ethnicity.
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•
Birth rates among unmarried U.S. mothers are highest for women in their
early 20s (80 births per 1,000 unmarried women aged 20-24), and lowest
for teens under 18 and for women over age 35.
• Birth rates among unmarried mothers are highest
for Hispanic women (106 births per 1,000 unmarried Hispanic women),
followed by non-Hispanic black women (72 per 1,000) and non-Hispanic
white women (32 per 1,000).
• The overwhelming majority of births to teenagers
are non-marital. Among teens aged 15-17, 93 percent of births were non-marital
in 2007, while among teens aged 18-19, 84 percent of births were non-marital.
• In 2007, 45 percent of births to women in their
20s were to unmarried women. Sixty percent of births to women aged 20-24
were non-marital in 2007, up from 52 percent in 2002. Nearly one third
of births to women aged 25-29 were non-marital in 2007, up from one
fourth in 2002.
And
the study doesn't merely address teenagers and young women. Older women
are now choosing to have children without the traditional prerequisite
of marriage. What's been commonly called "The Murphy Brown Syndrome",
named after a television show character who decides to have a baby without
marrying, has become deeply imbedded with the US culture, according
to educator Janet Martin, who hold both master of arts in education
and master of arts in developmental psychology.
"When then Vice President Dan Quayle complained about the Murphy
Brown TV show glorifying out of wedlock child bearing, he was ridiculed
by most of the denizens of the news media. However, the point was that
the character Murphy Brown was a wealthy celebrity who could afford
childcare while a 19-year old can barely get a job at McDonald's because
she lacks education and job skills," said Martin.
"That seems to be the idea. When single women have children, they
will depend on the US government to provide childcare as is being proposed
by [President Barack] Obama. This creates a situation in which the State
raises kids the way it wishes -- in a politically correct way that accepts
homosexuality, abortion, gun control, and other issues dear to the hearts
of leftist educators and politicians," warns Mike Baker.
Conservatives fear the current administration of President Barack Obama
will ignore this important government study. In fact, according to reports,
within Obama's Fiscal Year 2010 Proposed Budget, the president recommends
that Congress eliminate funding for abstinence education and instead
pour funds into condoms and contraceptive-based sex education.
The proposed budget calls for an additional $150 million for contraceptive-only
education, which includes competitive grants, research, evaluation and
authorization for $50 million in new mandatory condom grants to states,
tribes and territories, according to an Abstinence
Clearinghouse press release.
"The problem is that this condom-solution has been tried again
and again. In New York City, condoms were handed out like candy and
you know what the kids did? They blew them up into balloons -- some
with water inside -- and the schools' custodial staff had to clean up
latex from school corridors," quips Baker.
"These liberals have no idea what they are doing. If they did they
would know teenagers by their very nature are prone to risks thinking
'it won't happen to me.' The problem is it does happen to them,"
he said.
Martin
wonders why many church pastors are silent about unwed mothers giving
birth to children without marrying or having a male partner.
"Where is the Christian leadership? Where are the pastors who tend
to their flocks of believers? Why aren't they speaking out," asks
the veteran educator.
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"When will church leaders speak out about the moral corruption in our society? Why is morality being left to secular authorities and school teachers who are warned to remain silent about their Christian beliefs or who buy into the socialist dogma of non-judgmentalism on morality? Can't they see that unwed motherhood is a prescription for increased government control of children and decreased influence of parents on raising these children?" Baker asks.
