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What does help create more stable families? Birth control--because three-quarters of births outside marriage are unintended, according to sociologist Jennifer Manlove of Child Trends, a nonprofit that studies childhood development. Particularly among 20-somethings, the fastest-growing group of unmarried moms, there's a tendency to use less reliable means of birth control, like condoms and the withdrawal method. Their European peers, who often get free, state-funded health care, tend to use more expensive but more reliable methods like the Pill and IUDs.
Another thing we might do to create more stable, two-parent families is help men find jobs. The retreat from wedlock has occurred in tandem with the economic decline of working-class men. Marriage rates, along with the wages of less educated men, have been falling for four decades. Many experts who study the economics of marriage see a connection between those two trends. There simply aren't as many steadily employed, marriageable men as there used to be, so women--particularly poorer ones--end up going it alone.
All this presents an interesting campaign conundrum for Republicans. It turns out that bailing out Detroit may be a better way to boost marriage than promoting abstinence. Note to President Obama's campaign managers: Put a ring on that.