The problem is not “teen” births, the problem is out-of-wedlock births

In 1960, the percentage of out-of-wedlock births to teenaged mothers was 14.8 percent, which is lower than the lowest out-of-wedlock rate for any age group of females today. Meanwhile, the out-of-wedlock ratio for teenaged mothers today is 86.7 percent. As for whites, the rate of out-of-wedlock births to teenaged mothers in 1960 was 7.2 percent, reaching 79.8 percent in 2006. A commenter at The Thinking Housewife adds:

So, in a mere 50 years time, in the space of two generations, the white out-of-wedlock birth ratio for teenagers has gone from a definite 7.2 percent in 1960 to a likely estimated 84.2 percent in 2010. Don’t let anyone tell you it is “natural” for a teenage girl to be unmarried when she gives birth, don’t let anyone tell you it is a simple matter of her immaturity level, that she is not old enough to be married yet. The reason why teenagers give birth while being unmarried today the great majority of the time is a simple matter of the destruction of the family brought on by the feminist revolution, nothing more.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 17, 2010 07:45 PM | Send