It’s been 14 years since Vice President Dan Quayle made headlines for criticizing Hollywood’s portrayal of the TV character Murphy Brown’s single motherhood.  Unfortunately, his words of warning about the effect of single parenthood on childrens’ lives didn’t seem to take with the nation.  Yesterday, the federal government announced that out-of-wedlock births have hit an all-time high, with four of out every ten babies born to unmarried mothers.  Interestingly, while the out-of-wedlock birth rate rose, the teen birth rate dropped to the lowest level.  It’s the  20-somethings that are had the most dramatic increase in out-of-wedlock births last year.

Once again, California seems to be setting the trend for the nation.  After all, doesn’t seem like every time you pick up a People magazine there’s yet another Hollywood starlet having a baby out of wedlock?  (The rest are getting married and then getting divorced months later.)  And apparently a growing number of American young women are following the example set by Angelina Jolie, Katie Holmes, Sean "Diddy" Combs and his girlfriend and others who either never marry or wait until after the baby is born to bother tying the knot.

See, in Hollywood, it’s fine to have a baby out of wedlock.  Just be sure to have a fancy baby shower at some trendy restaurant where your friends can shower you with gifts like $995 doll carriage for your new daughter or a chandelier for the baby’s room.

Here’s an excerpt of Quayle’s 1993 speech at San Francisco‘s Commonwealth Club:

"It doesn’t help matters when prime time TV has Murphy Brown – a character who supposedly epitomizes today’s intelligent, highly paid, professional woman – mocking the importance of a father, by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another "lifestyle choice."

"I know it is not fashionable to talk about moral values, but we need to do it. Even though our cultural leaders in Hollywood, network TV, the national newspapers routinely jeer at them, I think that most of us in this room know that some things are good, and other things are wrong. Now it’s time to make the discussion public.

"It’s time to talk again about family, hard work, integrity and personal responsibility. We cannot be embarrassed out of out belief that two parents, married to each other, are better in most cases for children than one. That honest work is better than hand-outs – or crime. That we are our brother’s keepers. That it’s worth making an effort, even when rewards aren’t immediate."

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.