More Couples saying “I don’t;” Cohabitation rate spikes 13% in one year

The Census Bureau is reporting that marriage in the 24-34 age range is down and the number of couples who choose to “live together” has gone up 13 percent in one year (2009).  Experts point to the recession, joblessness, and general apprehension regarding the future.  But is living together (cohabiting) a good idea?  Does it give the couple a chance to successfully “test drive” a possible marriage?   Is it a good idea for women or for the children that these couples might bring into the world?  The answer is a resounding, “No.”

The research and empirical data is very clear that cohabiting relationships do not produce healthy outcomes for men and women, children, or for society as a whole.  Experts note that cohabitation is more a preparation for divorce than a way to strengthen the likelihood of marriage.  Women and children disproportionally bear the brunt of the negative outcomes associate with cohabitation.  As one social scientist put it:  “No positive contribution of cohabitation to marriage has ever been found.”  So why, then, are so many couples “shacking up” (forgive the nod to the past)?

Since the media and popular culture tell us all that cohabiting is the “natural and normal” thing to, we thought it would be important to let you know the rest of the story.  Click here (Part I, Part II) to go to “Cohabitation” from UFI’s Guide to Family Issues series.  You’ll see some rarely talked about details regarding the decision to “live together.”

China announces they won’t be ending their one-child policy

On Monday, China announced that it will continue its so-called “One-Child Policy.” In spite of skewed sex ratios (millions more boys than girls), an expanding elderly population that will sink any nascent social security program and hobble an economy with a shrinking labor force, and all that without even mentioning the massive human rights violations involved, China says that it will continue to restrict fertility.   As the policy now stands, couples in urban areas are allowed just one-child and in some rural areas, parents can bear two children.

Li Bin, head of China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission stated:  “We will stick to the family planning policy in the coming decades.”    That is really puzzling.  Demographers acknowledge that by 2025 China’s population, in absolute numbers, will begin shrinking and they will enter into a phase of population freefall.   For all of you who have hitched your financial fortunes to a belief in China’s economic prowess, you might want to start rethinking your strategy.

Demographers also acknowledge that China’s fertility rate would more than likely have fallen without the introduction of the one-child policy.  Over the last three decades, fertility rates of other Asian countries have fallen at almost identical rates to China-without the use of coercive population control programs.  What a tragedy—one that just doesn’t seem to end.

To read more analysis and news stories on China’s one-child policy, see:

Three Decades of Forced Abortion… and counting:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10092803.html

China’s Silent Holocaust to Continue:

http://europeanlifenetwork.blogspot.com/2010/09/chinas-silent-holocaust-to-continue.html

The Tragedy of China’s Bare Branches:

http://unitedfamiliesinternational.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/the-tragedy-of-bare-branches/

Nearly Three Million Chinese Babies Are Hidden Every Year to Get Around the Country’s One-Child Policy

http://www.urbanchristiannews.com/ucn/2010/06/nearly-three-million-chinese-babies-are-hidden-every-year-to-get-around-the-countrys-one-child-polic.html

Correction on “New Jersey Abortion Clinics still being funded”

It has been pointed out to United Families International that although the abortion industry  is still receiving some funding in the state of New Jersey, Gov. Christie has taken some positive steps to dramatically reduce that funding and thus deserves our thanks.  Please do so by contacting him here:

http://www.nj.gov/nj/feedback.html

We will watch Gov. Christie and hope that his record will reflect a continued support of policy that saves the lives of preborn children.

You can see United Families original blog post on this topic here.

Ten States file brief with 9th Circuit Court in Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage

Ten states have signed onto an amicus brief opposing same-sex marriage.  Alabama, Florida, Idaho Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming have filed the brief with the 9^th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals  in support of Prop 8—California’s state amendment defining marriage as being between one man and one woman.

Judge Vaughn Walker ruled in August that California’s marriage Amendment (Proposition 8), a 2008 initiative supported by 7 million California voters  (52%), was unconstitutional.  Walker ruled that there was no legitimate state interest in prohibiting same-sex marriages, that there is no difference in the contributions that male and females make to the rearing of children, that gender is irrelevant and that to believe otherwise is discriminatory.  This case and Walker’s ruling are being appealed.

The 39-page brief argues that same-sex marriage is not a fundamental right.  The brief states:  “The district court’s open-ended redefinition of marriage has no legal basis and no principled limits.”  “If public affirmation of anyone and everyone’s personal love and commitment is the single purpose of marriage, a limitless number of rights claims could be set up that evacuate the term marriage of any meaning.”

All of the states, with the exception of Wyoming and Indiana, already have state constitutional amendments defining marriage.  Wyoming and Indiana do have statutes that define marriage, but as of yet, do not have state constitutional amendments.  Each of these states stands to see their marriage laws over-ruled if Walker’s ruling is not overturned.  Both sides, however, expect this case to go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

See other UFI posts on this topic:

Perry v. Schwarzenegger: The Beginning of the End of Religious Freedom in America

Federal Court Grants Stay on Same-Sex Marriages in California

Judge Rejects a “Stay” on Same-Sex Marriages in California

U.S. District Judge Overturns California’s Prop 8

How has the Recession impacted your family?

With news outlets reporting that the recession actually ended back in June 2009, we thought it would be a good time to ask about the recession’s impact on your family.  So here is last week’s United Families International Poll question of the week.  We asked our UFI readers:

Has the recession been a positive or a negative thing for your family’s relationships as a whole?

Here’s the result:

Positive                                               18 percent

Negative                                             65 percent

No change                                          17 percent

We’ll leave the question of whether or not the recession has ended up to the economic experts, but after viewing the UFI reader poll responses—65 percent of you felt your family and its relationships have not fared well—we wondered if there might be some kind of “silver lining” to the dark clouds of this current economic situation.  Below are some links to articles that share some positive things that can come when families face economic hard times.

Five Reasons Why a Recession Can be a Good thing

7 Reasons Why the Recession is Good for You

10 Good Things About Our Bad Economy

10 Reasons Why the Recession Will Benefit America

Recession Will Lead to Stronger Marriages

Why the Recession is a Good Thing:  Suze Orman

New Jersey Abortion clinics STILL being funded

**To see a correction to this post, go here.

We had no sooner hit the “publish” button on a blog post where we praised New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for cutting off funding to abortion clinics, (see below post) when we were notified that people were misunderstanding Gov. Christi’s actions.  It seems that the Governor is a supporter of Planned Parenthood and tax-payer funded abortion will continue in New Jersey.

Evidently Gov. Christi has personally donated to Planned Parenthood in the past and his deputy press secretary, Kevin Roberts, has gone on record stating: “Women’s reproductive services, including abortions, will continue to be funded [in New Jersey] by a mix of state and federal funding.”

The conventional wisdom cited was correct–Gov. Christi is a fiscal conservative, but not a conservative on social issues.   We had hoped that this current economic downturn and serious financial constraints would have yielded something positive–like saving the lives of unborn children in New Jersey by defunding abortion clinics.

You won’t be needing to contact Gov. Christi to thank him after all.

You can read more on this situation here.

BELOW IS THE ORIGINAL POST

New Jersey Governor cuts funding to Planned Parenthood—Clinics now closing

The conventional wisdom about New Jersey’s Governor, Chris Christie, is that he is a fiscal, but not necessarily a social conservative.  Whatever the case, the pro-life community is thrilled that tax dollars no longer go to line the pockets of Planned Parenthood as Gov. Christie instituted major budget cuts to stave off a financial collapse of his state.   As a result, more unborn children will have a chance at life as insolvent Planned Parenthood clinics begin closing in that state.

The Planned Parenthood affiliate of Southern New Jersey will lose as much as $160,000 as a result of the cutting off of state funds.  At least one Planned Parenthood store front has closed as others scrambled to stay afloat.  There are 58 “family planning” clinics that were subject to the loss of funding; Planned Parenthood runs 29 of them.

Governor Christie showed he’s one tough guy as he faced down his state legislature on this one.  Back in July, Christie vetoed a bill that would have continued the state funding to abortion businesses.  The state senate then approved a bill to restore the funding with a 30-10 vote.  Later, the senate vote to over-ride Gov. Christie’s veto of this bill failed with a 23-17 party-line vote—falling short of the necessary two-thirds to over ride the Governor’s veto.   Seems some of the New Jersey state senators concluded it wasn’t wise to continue to tangle with Governor Christi.

Thanks, Governor Christie.  Whatever your reason for pulling the plug on taxpayer funding for abortion clinics, we’ll take it!

You can thank Gov. Chris Christie here:

http://www.nj.gov/nj/feedback.html

“Divorce is not an Option”

The last line of the article on CNN Living should be the first line of every piece that is written about marriage—“Divorce is not an option.”  “Children of divorce vow to break cycle, create enduring marriages” has a positive message and shares some great information.  Frankly we were surprised.  Usually articles written about divorce are written to downplay its devastating impact on children and the adults who are actors in each divorce’s tragic saga.  The message is more often than not “don’t worry…everyone will eventually get over the pain and besides we just HAVE to have unilateral (one spouse decides) divorce laws…”

Here are some interesting statistics gleaned from the article:

• “The risk of divorce is 50 percent higher when one spouse comes from a divorced home, and 200 percent higher risk when both of them do.”
• “Children of divorce are 50 percent more likely to marry another child of divorce.”
• “Children with divorced parents face inability to trust; they have no role models for commitment.”

But here’s the encouraging news:

• “Divorce in a family can sometimes help children strengthen their own relationships with their future partner.  Their resolve to make their own marriage work is deepened.”
• “Children of divorced parents may be more likely to spot a troubled partner and avoid toxic relationships.”
• One couple interviewed holds tightly to the motto, “Divorce is not an option.”

We say “amen” to that that.  Imagine the difference in the divorce rate if every couple approached every inevitable challenge in a marriage with that understanding.

“I didn’t marry you because you were perfect.  I didn’t even marry you because I loved you.  I married you because you gave me a promise.  That promise made up for your faults.  And the promise I gave you made up for mine.  Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage.  And when our children were growing up, it wasn’t a house that protected them; and it wasn’t our love that protected them—it was that promise.”

–Thornton Wilder, author

What Obama should be doing this week at the UN

This is a first for United Families International.  We are linking you to the Huffington Post.  We want you to see an article authored by Richard Grenell.  Rick was a friend and advocate for the family during his time as the Communications Director for four different U.S. Ambassadors to the UN.  He is sorely missed in that capacity.

Richard outlines what should be—and certainly won’t be—happening this week in New York where leaders from around the world are gathered for the Millennial Development Summit.

Here are just a few items off of Rick’s list:

• · Make clear that the Arizona law the UN attacked was written to stop illegal immigration, not prohibit legal immigration.

  Call out the Human Rights Council for yet another disastrous year of Israel bashing and overlooking rights violators.

  Nominate a U.S. Ambassador level person to tackle UN reform and UN budget waste, fraud, abuse and duplicity.

  Ask Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to investigate the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to ascertain how erroneous scientific claims were added to official UN reports.

To see the full article go here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-grenell/10-things-obama-should-do_1_b_732483.html

Lady Gaga Fails in Her Aggressive Efforts to Overturn “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”

Looks like Lady Gaga’s appeal to her fans to contact senators to encourage them to overturn the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy has been unsuccessful.  Mobilizing her 6.3 million twitter followers and posting a heavily-scripted plea on youtube  seemed to have little effect .  Today (Tuesday, Sept 21) the Senate voted against cloture on the Defense Authorization Bill.

A bipartisan vote in the senate has now delayed this bill which would have allowed abortions to be performed on military bases (on the tax payer’s dime, of course) and allowed homosexuals to openly serve in the military.  It also included a controversial amendment that would have granted a form of amnesty to millions of illegal aliens who arrived in the U.S. prior to their 16^th birthday.

Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada), with the encouragement of same-sex advocacy groups and pop culture oddities like Lady Gage, concocted the scheme to use the Defense Authorization Bill to slide in a little—no a lot!—of social engineering.  Reid was attempting to hold the military and the country hostage by adding his favorite leftist policies to a bill that is meant to provide funding to U.S. troops.  Many have referred to Reid’s political maneuvering as “despicable.”

United Families International thanks Senators McCain, McConnell, and Inhofe for their efforts in building  and maintaining a coalition to successfully stop this legislation.  Political analysts give mixed opinions as to when this bill may resurface.  We will alert you when it comes forward again.

As for now, Harry Reid and Lady Gaga are back to the drawing board.

New Bill Requires Asking Children to Declare their Sexual Orientation

Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee passed a bill that would require health officials to question all individuals, including children, as to their sexual orientation and their “gender identity.”  Anyone using a program or service from a community health center connected to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be asked to declare whether or not they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered.

Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the first openly-declared lesbian elected to Congress, introduced H. R. 6109 and insists “this bill is about collecting data, no more, no less.”  Baldwin adds that the current “lack of cultural competency” among federal officials means that “we are left with gaping holes in our knowledge on LGBT policy” resulting in “significant health disparities.”

This new bill would impact all HHS health service programs, including those that focus on children via government-funded school health clinics.  If your children show up to get a vaccination or an eye-exam, for example, they will be asked about their “sexual orientation” or their “gender identity”—and their answer will be recorded.  We agree with Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) who sits on the committee:  “For the life of me I do not see any reason at all to do this bill… While I assume most adults understand know what that is, it is inconceivable that a child in a program would even know what some of the terms mean.”

Wait!  Maybe we don’t totally agree with Rep. Barton.  We can see a reason for this bill… to aid the process of stripping children of their innocence and force all of us to be participants in efforts to mainstream homosexual behavior.

Examples of just a few of numerous HHS school-based programs:

• Vaccination and vision health programs
• Tobacco free programs
• Dental and mental health programs
• After-school programs
• Teenage pregnancy prevention programs
• Drug-abuse prevention programs
• All health programs connected to Medicaid