Births Among Unmarried Women 'Surging,' Contributing To Social Issues, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 26 Mar 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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Teenagers account for only about 23% of out-of-wedlock births in the U.S., meaning that the "vast majority of unwed mothers are old enough to know what they're doing," columnist Emily Yoffe writes in a Slate opinion piece. According to Yoffe, births among unmarried women ages 25 to 29 are "surging," and they now account for 40% of all births, compared with 5% in 1960.

Yoffe writes that the "extraordinary decoupling of marriage" and childbirth during the last 50 years is "out of touch with the needs of children." According to Yoffe, some researchers have said that births among unmarried women are a "chief cause for the increasing stratification and inequality of American life." She adds that multiple studies have found that children born to single women are "vastly more likely to be poor, have behavioral and psychological problems, drop out of high school and themselves go on to have out-of-wedlock children."

Other researchers have said the "decision to have children without fathers leads to harsh, and self-perpetuating, economic conditions," Yoffe writes. Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution during her 1999 congressional testimony said that the increase in single women raising children "can account for virtually all of the increase in child poverty since 1970." In addition, a recent study found that the "stress of early childhood poverty can literally damage developing brains," Yoffe writes.

In an effort to "avoid the trauma of divorce," many women without college educations are "forgoing marriage altogether," Yoffe writes, adding that only 4% of college-educated women have children outside of marriage. Yoffe writes that neither she nor researchers advise marriage at "all costs," citing a Center for Law and Social Policy study that found "high-conflict" marriages can be "as bad for children as having never-married parents." However, Yoffe adds that young women who are "wholly unprepared to be mothers are not getting the message that there are dire consequences of having" unprotected sex with men who are "too lame to be fathers" (Yoffe, Slate, 3/20).

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