Statistics almost always lag behind reality, but the latest numbers (2007) for births to unmarried mothers in the United States are alarming: unmarried women accounted for 39.7 percent of all U.S. births in 2007. Broken down by race: Black women, 72%, Hispanic women 51%, and non-Hispanic White women, 28%.
The numbers are just as troubling in other countries: Iceland, 66%; Sweden, 55%; France, 50%; United Kingdom, 44%.
The little pregnant girl I saw today faces a very bleak future: she may prove loyal to her child(ren) and spend the rest of her life as one of the working poor, or, she may dump the child(ren) with relatives and run off in pursuit of "fun." Emily Yoffe in the Slate.com article below states that "Studies have found that children born to single mothers are vastly more likely to be poor, have behavioral and psychological problems, drop out of high school, and themselves go on to have out-of-wedlock children."
All the statistics point out the result of devaluing traditional standards of morality. Girls/women learn to not value and treasure their bodies and their chastity. Instead they learn to see themselves as objects, as a commodity which they can use to get "what they want." And, strangely, some "experts" see this as liberating for women.
Christians need to use whatever influence they have to foster the traditional understanding of sexuality only within the bounds of marriage. It is not the sexuality which is the problem, but the loss of a proper understanding of sexuality. God gave us sex; sex is holy. When sex is removed from its proper context, it becomes a destructive force, just another sin, like unbridled greed or unreasoning hatred or a little white lie. One sin is as good as another.
All sin reduces to the primal sin, the worship of self instead of God.
Three articles about teenage and unwed pregnancy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/13/AR2009051301628.html
http://www.slate.com/id/2185944/
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