Sex and the Underclass: Pregnancy and Poverty     3/15/2006

Since 1991, childbearing among unwed-black teens has significantly decreased. But why?

Liberals, progressives, feminists and welfare advocates have long believed that the road to eliminate poverty was lined with abortions and higher welfare benefits. Indeed, there is no surer route to poverty than for an unmarried teenager to get pregnant and drop out of high school (which is assumed to happen either because the low-quality public education in her poor neighborhood failed to adequately explain sex and demonstrate contraception to her or because poverty drove her to this end). Ultimately, from the liberal point of view, only two options are available to avoid inflicting the hardship of poverty on her child: She must terminate the pregnancy or she must acquire the government funds needed for the necessities of life for herself and her child. That is to say, she needs to be able to obtain a federally approved abortion or a federally provided income. [more ...]

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