I believe it is safe to say, and that most will agree with the simple
fact that there are more children being born outside of marriages.
There are also fewer marriages to begin with.
Over the past thirty-five years, marriage has declined and the number
of so-called illegitimate children have increased. Okay? Okay.
Accordingly, many of us will acknowledge that there are fewer fathers
in the lives of the children being born outside of marriages.
And, we will probably agree that the diminishing number of fathers in
the lives of children has contributed to a number of social problems,
including teen crime, drug-related behaviors and child abuse.
But, sadly, what we probably won’t agree upon is the root cause of
childbirth outside of marriage, or even to whom the children are being
born.
In 1965, seven percent of the nation’s children were born to single parents. Currently the number is 33 percent.
There are three main factors that have contributed to that increase,
including a decrease in the number of women who wait for marriage to
have children; a decline in the birth rate of married women and an
increase in the birth rate of unmarried women.
Now, first and foremost allow me to underscore the fact that this is
not a Black phenomenon. This is something that is occurring in America
and it affects everyone.
Having said that, if we know that the problem is that there are more
unmarried women having children, why can’t more of the solutions focus
on encouraging more women who are unmarried to avoid unwanted
pregnancies?
There are a plethora of choices, including myriad forms of birth
control, abstinence, and whether you agree or disagree, abortion is
also an option.
The point is that it is counterproductive and silly to only discuss
absentee and deadbeat fathers, without also discussing the role and
responsibility of the person who has the most control.
Examine the court system where child support is concerned and the focus
is on assuring that fathers pay or are jailed, but very little focus is
given to whether the woman who had the child is prepared and capable of
supporting her offspring financially, emotionally or otherwise. Shall
we force her to demonstrate financial responsibility or be jailed?
And the question that no one wants to ask is this: If neither the
mother nor the father were financially prepared, why weren’t steps
taken to prevent the pregnancy? I’ll follow up on this shortly.
The question of how to reduce out of wedlock births can not be boiled
down to laying the blame at the feet of Black men. In addition to the
dual responsibility for both parents, there is also societal
responsibility.
For example, while television (both cable and network) has delivered
more sexual content, our schools have delivered less sexual education.
And, the village that may have raised previous generations of children from single parent homes has splintered.
Today’s single mothers are more than likely the children of single
mothers themselves, who may have provided little sex education and/or
preparation for sex and pregnancy.
A blip on the radar screen was the slight decline of single parent births in the Black community in the late 1990’s.
But percentage-wise, things still don’t look very good.
Before presenting the numbers, it is crucial to underscore the fact
that while African Americans have a more dismal picture in terms of
sheer percentages of populations, all Americans are dealing with the
issue.
In fact, Blacks don’t actually have the highest actual number of out of wedlock children.
In terms of percentages, non-Hispanic Blacks have a total of 69.4 per
cent of births out of wedlock, Hispanics have 40.92, whites have 21.54
and Asian/Pacific islanders have 15.64 percent.
