Illegitimacy soars as the stigma against it declines
The news was not startling. The statistics were. According to federal figures, illegitimate births increased so rapidly in the 1970s that 17% of U.S. babiesone out of every sixare now born out of wedlock. In 1979, the last year for which statistics are available, an estimated 597,000 illegitimate babies were born, up 50% since 1970. Nationwide nearly a third of the babies born to white teen-agers and 83% born to black teens were illegitimate.
Blacks account for more than half of all illegitimate births, but the...
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