In his November 28 online column, Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal.com assistant editor Brendan Miniter baselessly asserted that a study indicating an increase in out-of-wedlock births “reveals why” the debate over same-sex marriage “is worth having now.”

Miniter wrote that a lawsuit recently filed by Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) against his state's legislature, in which Romney seeks to force lawmakers to put a same-sex marriage ban on the ballot, “serv[es] as an opportunity to reach a consensus on why marriage as an institution is worth protecting.” Miniter then baselessly connected same-sex marriage to a study by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which, as Miniter wrote, “found that although teen pregnancy rates are dropping, the number of out-of-wedlock births in America has been steadily rising since the 1990s.” Miniter made no attempt to explain what the rise in out-of-wedlock births since the 1990s has to do with same-sex marriage. Massachusetts is the only state in the country that has legalized same-sex marriage, doing so through a state supreme court ruling in 2003. According to a report released by the NCHS, Massachusetts had the sixth-lowest percentage of births to unmarried women in 2003, the most recent year for which state-by-state data are available. Moreover, in 2004, Massachusetts had the lowest divorce rate of the 45 states that reported the statistic, trailing only Washington, D.C., according to the NCHS.

From Miniter's November 28 column:

It is here that Mr. Romney performs a public service. Dozens of states have already enacted their own constitutional amendments banning gay marriage. But as these amendments have passed with overwhelming margins in even liberal states (and helped turn out Republican voters in 2004), the debate over the merits of traditional marriage has largely died down. Passing the marriage amendments have been exercises in the expression of the popular will, without also serving as an opportunity to reach a consensus on why marriage as an institution is worth protecting.

Although advocates of same-sex marriage will deny there is any connection to extending the institution to gay couples, a recent report released by the National Center for Health Statistics reveals why this debate is worth having now. The study found that although teen pregnancy rates are dropping, the number of out-of-wedlock births in America has been steadily rising since the 1990s. It seems women in their 20s and 30s are having children without getting married first. Last year the proportion of births that are illegitimate reached an all time high of 37%, or 1.5 million children.

The debate on how to address this growing social problem will likely only take place in a presidential race and only if at least one candidate vying for the Oval Office is willing to do more than push the issue off to the side by calling for a federal constitutional amendment.