Out-of-wedlock childbirths are becoming the “new norm” in America

We are extremely conservative, but we have chosen to not get married because of the ties to the government. It was explained that a marriage license is basically permission from the government to enter a legal contract of marriage between you, the other person, AND the state you are married in. That gives the state the right to exert it's different treatments of you during the marriage and control the dissolution process should it ever need to occur (and, oh yeah, collect money from you to help pay for that control over you), your marriage basically belongs to the state. We do not need the government's permission and intrusion in that personal of an aspect of our lives and have chosen to keep them out of it by remaining legally unmarried, but while sharing a full commitment to each other and our daughter. We see it as the lesser of the 2 evils. Do some research on it, there are a lot of websites available to explain it all as the complexities go much deeper than this quick explanation... It is very interesting and very scary!!

Of course liberals like UNWED MOTHERS.....Liberals have created a sick and depraved society.

We get more of whatever government subsidizes. Currently, government is subsidizing poverty and failure. The result is we get more poverty and failure. I have never understood why women vote themselves, via their choices, into proverty with their behavior. I guess hormones trump economics, genitalia ATM, is a bad life style choice.

This is just great.

The State is the Father.

Back when, a woman would fight to keep her man.

Now, they fight to keep their Welfare.

Pretty stupid.

I wouldn't call it "normal." It's wrong, it's anti-women (part of the War on Women is to make it harder on women raising kids--they don't get any help from a man in their lives), and it's stupid. It's not necessarily Marxist, either, although some Marxists inexplicably attach a lot of non-economic-related items to their agendas.

The new most asked question...."Who da daddy be?"

The answer...."Evidently, for most practical purposes, the US taxpayer....that is, until the money runs out. And oh, by the way, the money has now run out." TD01

Proves the point. We need tighter gun laws.

This is the Marxists dream. Break up the family and it's only the government you rely on. Just look at Western Europe.

People,

Don't we have better things to talk about than the breakdown and defamation of the fundamental building block of society? I mean, come on, we've got to get stricter gun laws in place ASAP. No need for the rest of this nonsense.

I grew up in a small town of 6,000 in New York in the 60s and 70s where was divorce was a rarity. People simply stayed together, especially if they had kids. Then the consequences of the "free love" thinking took hold. I remember having my eyes opened when I was a counselor at a YMCA summer day camp in 1984. I was shocked by the number of kids who were now coming from broken homes. I hadn't seen this before. I remember one 10-year-old kid in particular who told me his "mommy's boyfriend" was picking him up that night. He then paused, looked up at me with a half-smile, and said, "I wish it was my daddy instead."

The number of unwed mothers is our own fault. We no longer stand up for what is right, lest someone be offended.

Frankly, I'm getting sick and tired of the men not taking responsibility.

We have, as a nation, a huge problem with accepting personal responsibility. It is caused when there is absolutely no moral compass. The beginning of this tragic mentality started in the 60's and it has degenerated ever since. If you point out that there is indeed a God and He did give us a guide, the Bible, the liberals are ready to ridicule you into a hole. However, they want to pull God out of the box when a tragedy occurs and act all pious. We have several generations now that are unable or unwilling to acknowledge that there is a right and a wrong and are entirely focused on feeding their incessant whims and to hell with the consequences...literally.

Too many people in my generation are just pumping out kid after kid and not having any shame of not knowing who the father is. If ANYONE even dares say that the amount of single mothers in our society is causing the out of control behaviors you're seeing among teenagers and young adults you're called a sexist. Just face it if you are raised by a single mother and don't fail in life you're an exception not the rule.

Contraception is free and these young adults still don't use protection because they like to feel the sex. The problem is you have this young generation thinking that everything should be given to them. My sister has the same problem like most of this generation. They expect to get money, house, job, etc... and NOT EARN IT. They spend their money on entertainment and expect their family members to bail their a-s-s-e-s out. If problems occur, they drop their responsibility (e.g. marrying the baby moms) and place it on the grandparents and others to raise their children. It use to be a pariah status to have a baby out of wedlock. Now, folks want it to get food stamps and free stuff. LBJ's Great Society has come home to roost.

Just pitiful. It is definitely not racial either because I see people of all colors doing it. Just sad.

$6000 for 4 kids, if she does not reveal the fathers' name. Our money. Why work?

70% of those kids will have problems with the law.

Safety net had become a hammock and, very possibly, a factory of criminals.

Everybody in congress knows it and insist on increasing those spendings.

Vote buying.

Isn't that what the feminists want? They always said that men were not necessary when it came to raising kids, so now they can live with this. That cartoon strip the Obama people released during the campaign called "The Life of Julia" is now all too accurate, which means you will have even more people dependent on government for just about everything, from housing and schooling to health insurance and pensions. Hey, in the last election, it's what the majority of Americans voted for, so now they're stuck with it. Elections DO have consequences, so now these single moms can deal with it.

Blankenhorn is not worth quoting. If he really cared about preserving real marriage, he wouldn't be supporting "gay marriage" as he now does.

Well, this is the consequence when sex has become the focal point of existence; when it is deemed 'healthy' to have it, as many times as possible, but unhealthy when not.

This is what happens when generations of kids are taught that sex is just an itch which can and should be scratched - and when love, true love, not romantic falderal, has been cut off from sex and indeed from any personal encounter.

This is what happens when growing up, becoming an adult, taking on responsibilities, has been obliterated by both government ('we'll give you the money, don't worry about having a kid') and modern 'life style' propagated by Hollywood, the corrupt MSM, and leftie academia. Eternal kiddiehood, without responsibility, without thought, is what they want. And there you have the low-information voters who want free stuff without effort, without paying.

Well of course - how dare anyone imply that having a child out of wedlock is low class - we wouldn't want anyone to feel had about their lack of morals.

It may be for financial reasons that some don't marry but a lot of it is the fault of men and women alike for being irresponsible. This is not new by any means. It has been the norm for a long time.

I am not surprised.The destruction of the family unit has long been the desire of progressives.

Rampant sin and corruption are becoming the new "normal".

With the family unit eroding, kids are growing up in this new, depraved environment and they never really get exposure to family and good values or morals. As a result, this cycle feeds itself and grows worse day by day. Thank you Hollywood. Thank you leftists.

And this is the environment that helps outright lawless criminal scum like Obama to thrive.

Pray for America. All of us must help to stop this trend... and with the Lord's help, we will.

"Out-of-wedlock childbirths are becoming the “new norm” in America".

The obvious outcome of the 'If it feels good, do it, free love, generation".

I see a lot of poverty and 'gimme' in the future.

And tied very tightly to the fleeing of church and from God. We have no where to go but down the drain with this particular trajectory.

“The retreat from marriage is both a cause and a consequence of increasing inequality in America,” report co-author David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values, said.

What does this last statement mean? This guy is blowing smoke.

Yes, we do have all of these out of wed-lock births because no one teaches their kids how to behave in any circumstance. They expect the school/government to do it. They expect anyone but them to do it. Parents abdicate their responsibilities way too easily. As soon as government steps in they let government do it. The slippery slope started with government funded school cafeterias and we were off to the politicizing of education. We are coming up on the third generation of this nonsense and the results are disasterous for families and our country. The family is the survival unit in any society and the government/Dems have been chipping away this tenent since the Great Society. Start by feeding your own kids and stop letting the school/government interfere with your life. They are really bad at raising your kids. You can do a much better job.

My sister who is in her twenties, did not marry the father of her children even tho they have been together the entire time , because....there is no financial benefit from being married, not in taxes , not in insurance.

They own a home together, they have bank accounts together, they can do anyhing a married couple can do. They do better filing separately on their taxes then they would filing jointly

They are also , even tho they dont apply, more apt to get qualify for government assistance by being legally single then married because when applying for welfare, their finances are not combined, which would set them both higher income than indivudally

I teach at a community college, and I can tell you that it is usually safe for me to assume that an unmarried female student has a baby, and there is absolutely no stigma associated with it. Kids tell me proudly that they're expecting. We have sooo many pregnant students that I frequently address it on the first day of class (i.e. absences due to child birth are not excused, etc.) It really is different from when I went to school. Oh, and I'm in the Bible belt.

Think of all the tax advantages and free stuff you get if you single, it only makes sense.

This country is rapidly sliding downhill and that's a shame. I don't see anyone standing up for American values and so the slide will continue at an even greater rate. I've try to figure out when it all started and it had to be in the 60s when everyone decided to do their own thing without regard to social norms/mores. It seemed that young people rebelled against so many things, including marriage and religion. And not too many years later it become routine for people to have babies out of wedlock. No more hiding unmarried pregnant girls and women because of shame. Pregnant teenagers participated in high school graduations and they were accepted. Young boys impregnated girls and went on to other girls without a backward glance. Parents weren't as involved in the kids' lives as they should have been. God was taken out of our society in so many ways....taken out of school prayer, taken out of courthouses, kicked to the curb basically. This country has no anchor, and the foundations are horribly cracked and neglected.

As long as our "rich" Uncle Sam takes care of us rather than the parents (one father and one mother you can NOT produce children with two mothers or two fathers) nothing is going to change.

If you are mature enough to produce children then you must to be mature enough to raise children as a married couple.

Wonder what these numbers would be if the 1,000,000+ murdered babies (abortions) were counted/added. Direct result of a Society lowering morals to near extinction.