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Hispanics Lead U.S. In Unmarried Birthrate
The birthrate among Hispanic women in the U.S. is twice as high as the rest of the American population and an increasing number of Hispanic children are born to unmarried mothers. Hispanic women now have the highest unmarried birthrate in the country more than three times that of whites and Asians, and almost 1 1/2 times that of black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For every 1,000 unwed Hispanic women, 92 children were born in 2003, the latest year for which data are available. The rate for unmarried white women is 28 children per 1,000, for Asians its 22, and for black women, 66. According to Heather Mac Donald, a senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute, 45 percent of all Hispanic births occur outside marriage, compared to 24 percent for whites.
Story Continues Below And 51 percent of Hispanic women get pregnant at least once before age 20, compared with the national average of 35 percent for all teen girls, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy reports. Having a child out of wedlock, even for a teenager, is no longer a taboo in the Hispanic community, according to Mac Donald, who writes in the Dallas Morning News: "The most powerful Hispanic family value the tight-knit extended family facilitates unwed child rearing. Relatives often step in to make up for the absence of the babys father. But despite strong family support, unwed Hispanic mothers are coming to rely more and more on the welfare system. Hispanics now dominate the federal Women, Infants and Children free food program, with Hispanic enrollment soaring more than 25 percent from 1996 to 2002. Black enrollment fell 12 percent and white enrollment dipped 6.5 percent during the same period.
Illegal immigrants can get welfare for their U.S.-born children, and it has become "culturally O.K. for Hispanics to take advantage of the welfare system, according to Amy Braun, who works for an Orange County, Calif., home for young single mothers who are in crisis. One more distressing fact: According to the Wall Street Journal, there is a mountain of evidence indicating that children raised by non-college educated, economically struggling mothers are at an increased risk for virtually every social problem, including poverty, crime, drug use and single parenthood.
© NewsMax 2007. All rights reserved.
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