The Catholic California Daily website reports today (February 22, 2012) that -- for the first time in American history -- more than half of all births to American women under 30 are occurring outside of marriage.
That's what Child Trends -- analyzing data from the National Center for Health Statistics -- found out. The New York Times reported last weekend, "It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal."
Researchers have found that children born to married couples -- on the average -- "experience better education, social, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes" than others.
Many of these unwed mothers say they refuse to get married because they don't want to repeat the failures of their parents' marriages. Many of their parents' marriages ended as a result of their fathers abandoning their mothers to be involved with other women.
