Katha Pollitt

About the author: Katha Pollitt is an associate editor of the Nation, a liberal journal of opinion.

The decision to become a single mother is a rational choice for women who want children but do not need the economic security that marriage has traditionally provided. Society should recognize the legitimacy of this choice rather than blaming single mothers for social breakdown.

Murphy Brown's baby apparently has a lot of real-life company. According to a census-bureau report, the percentages of white women and women with some college education who have become mothers without marrying more than doubled between 1983 and 1993, to 14.6 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively; among women with professional or managerial jobs, the figure has almost tripled, to 8.3 percent. While the numbers are small—most unwed mothers are poor and thus disproportionately black or Hispanic...