GONE DADDY GONE: Half of all babies in Alabama are born to unmarried mothers
Number skyrockets to 75% among minorities, and 8 out of 10 in nearly half of the counties in the state
Data recently released to me by state officials show that approximately half (48.4%) of all babies born in Alabama were to unmarried women in 2020, the latest year records were collected and analyzed.
We can see the upward trend across all demographics — 34% of all white babies — but it’s staggeringly high in the “black and other” category, as tracked and listed by the Alabama Department of Public Health, including:
75% of minorities, statewide,
80%-plus of minorities in 30 of the state’s 67 counties, and
90%-plus of minorities in four counties.
Think about that last one for a moment: 9 out of every 10 minority children born in Clay, Conecuh, Tallapoosa, and Wilcox counties in 2020 were born to single mothers.
And when you consider the impacts of fatherlessness on society, it’s clear to see that this is an absolute cultural disaster.
The Data
Here’s the county-by-county breakdown of the percentage of births to unmarried women with the overall percentage, whites, and then “black and other” minorities for 2020:
These numbers aren’t anomalies. They’re part of a relentless trend that has seen the rate of fatherlessness grow annually for decades. It’s been steadily creeping upward a fraction of a percentage point every year.
In 1960, shortly before the enactment of several domestic policy initiatives that together were called “The Great Society,” the rate of births to unmarried women in Alabama was only 11.6%, according to a study by Auburn University at Montgomery’s Center for Demographic Research.
By 2000, that number had climbed to 34.3% and hasn’t slowed down a bit.
The Impact
Fatherlessness lies at the crossroads of every single issue our society faces – high crime, poor education, poor health, rampant addiction, and poverty to name just a few.
Here are the facts:
Crime
Children without fathers at home are more than two times more likely to be arrested as juveniles — Journal of Marriage and Family, 1996.
Black men raised in single-parent households are twice as likely to commit crimes than those raised by both parents — “Underclass Behaviors in the United States: Measurement and Analysis of Determinants,” City University of New York, 1990.
The same goes for white men raised by just their mothers, as the predictors of their likelihood to commit robbery are “in large part identical in sign and magnitude to those for blacks,” — Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 1988.
Every 1% increase in single-parent families in a community correlates to a 3% increase in adolescent violence — American Sociological Review, 1987.
Poverty
Children raised by single mothers are nearly six times more likely to need public assistance than children whose parents are married — U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual and Social Economic Supplement, 2016.
Children who are poor but have married parents have an 80% chance of moving into the middle class, but children who are born into the middle class and raised without a father at home are almost four-times as likely to become considerably poorer, regardless of race — Warren Farrell, author of “The Boy Crisis.”
Nearly 34% of children living with just their mothers were below the poverty line in 2020, compared to just 6% of those living with married parents — the U.S. Department of Justice.
Health
Babies born to unmarried women were found to have significantly lower birth weight — National Institutes of Health, 2021.
Children in single-parent households are at a significantly higher risk for obesity, especially girls and black children — Journal of Child Health Care, 2019.
Girls are four times as likely to become pregnant as teenagers if they don’t live with both parents — National Survey of Family Growth, 1995.
They’re twice as likely to be treated for emotional or behavioral problems — National Health Interview Survey on Child Health, 1988.
The risk of suicide among children doubles in single-parent households — The Lancet, 2003.
Education
Teens raised by single parents have lower standardized test scores, lower grades, lower expectations for college, and higher high school drop-out rates — Journal of Marriage and Family, 2003.
About 28% of children with married parents received mostly As on their report cards, versus only 9% of those who were in single-parent households — National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997.
Only 67% of students in single-family homes graduate from high school — Social Forces, 1992.
And the list of negative impacts goes on and on.
It stands to reason that if we want to make a difference in all of these issues, we should focus on improving the single common denominator fueling their increase — fatherlessness.
But is anybody trying to solve it?
Is anybody even talking about it?
Not here in Alabama. The last time the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama asked the state’s citizens to list their priorities, here was our top 10:
K-12 Education
Healthcare
Government Corruption and Ethics
Mental Health and Substance Abuse
Poverty and Homelessness
Jobs and the Economy
Crime and Public Safety
Job Training and Workforce Development
Improving the State's Image
Tax Reform
Fatherlessness isn’t even on our radar … but it’s clearly the most significant contributing factor to more than half the problems on that list.
So, is anyone talking about it nationally?
The high-profile Senate race next door in Georgia is instructive, particularly because it’s an election between two black men. Are they talking about the number one issue facing their community (70% of black children born there were to unwed mothers in 2021), and their state overall (Georgia ranks 11th in unmarried births, at 46% statewide)?
No. They’re not talking about it.
The Democrat, Sen. Raphael Warnock, doesn’t mention it on his website, but he has extensive categories focused on climate change and LGBTQ+ issues.
And the Republican, Herschel Walker, is the poster child for the problem, as his son took to Twitter recently to explain: “He has four kids, four different women, didn't raise one of them.”
So much for the party of family values.
The Solution?
Critics like to point their finger at the government, claiming that the Great Society-era expansion of the welfare state created an incentive for fathers not to marry the mother of their children.
That’s true … but only partially.
A problem this large and comprehensive — 9 out of 10 minorities in four Alabama counties, remember, and half of all children statewide — has many causes.
We, as a society, became lax in the enforcement of social norms in the last few decades, weakening the institution of marriage first by liberalizing divorce, both religiously within our congregations and then secularly with our laws. And then, almost without noticing, we de-stigmatized out-of-wedlock births to the point where it’s just as normal for a man not marry the mother of his children as it is if he marries her.
It’s one thing to have compassion for young people who make predictable, timeless mistakes, but it’s quite another to treat it as simply another lifestyle choice. Men used to hold other men accountable for such behavior … not elect them as their party’s nominee to the United States Senate.
Which brings me to the solution:
Forget the government.
Forget the church.
Forget the political parties.
They have all failed us on this issue.
The only way we’re going to reverse this trend and climb out of this mess is by each of us holding one another accountable. That’s essentially what a society is, and what forms the backbone of a culture.
So next time a young man in your family gets a girl pregnant, tell him, plain and simple, “Son, get married, and stay married.”
Otherwise, the number of babies born to unmarried women, being raised by just their mothers, will only increase, and the impact of all those fatherless children on our society will be devastating.
(J. Pepper Bryars is Alabama’s only reader-supported conservative journalist. You can support his writing by subscribing at https://jpepper.substack.com/subscribe.)