TROUBLING – AT 10:06 A.M. ET:  First, let me state that I respect mothers who are single, often because of circumstances they can't control, or because of tragedy, and who work hard to raise their children.  I've known some, and they should not be stereotyped, or lumped in with the irresponsible.

Still, some recent statistics raise troubling questions about the stability of this society.  From CNS: 

(CNSNews.com) - Forty-five percent of American mothers in their twenties have never been married, according to data that the Census Bureau released leading into the Mother’s Day weekend.

As of June 2014, according to the Census Bureau, there were 8,118,000 American women who were mothers and were from 20 to 29 years of age. Of these 8,118,000 American mothers in their twenties, 3,689,000 had never been married. That is 45.4 percent.

"In comparison with all mothers, young mothers are more likely to have had their first birth when they were neither married nor cohabiting,” states the Census. “Among young mothers who had their first birth between 2005 and June of 2012, 38 percent were neither married nor cohabiting at the time of the first birth.”

While the percentage of babies who are born to unmarried mothers is increasing, the average number of babies born per woman is declining.

“The average number of children ever born has dropped from more than three children per woman in 1976 to about two children per woman in 2012,” says the Census Bureau’s report on “Fertility of Women in the United States: 2012,” which was published in 2014.

Of the 4,125,353 who had a child in the 12 months prior to the 2012 Census Bureau survey, 31.3 percent had never been married and 7.0 percent were not married at the time of the survey. Only 61.8 percent of the new mothers was “currently married.”

COMMENT:  The fertility statistics are also troubling, if you look at what's happened in Western Europe.  Fertility is so low that the native populations in some countries cannot reproduce themselves.  That means that countries like the Netherlands may well not exist in 50 years.  Another country in danger of just fading away is Italy.  Those cultures will be lost. 

The West is failing in so many areas, but reproduction of home populations is basic to survival.

May 12, 2015