The 1950s and 1960s saw the highest recorded rates of teenage childbearing in the United States, as 90 out of 1,000 teenage girls gave birth in the late 1950s. Statistics reflect a significant decline to 48.7 births per 1,000 teenagers in 1999. Despite this decrease, many people argue that the problems associated with teenage pregnancy and childbearing are more serious today than they were in the 1950s and 1960s.

Some people contend that the problem lies not in the rates of pregnancy and childbearing, but in the decline of marriage among teenagers. In 1960, the percentage of unmarried teenage births was 15 percent, but today about 80 percent of teenage pregnancies and 75 percent of teenage births are to unmarried girls. In the 1950s and 1960s, premarital sex was widely considered immoral, and the lack of reliable birth control often quickly revealed a teenager’s indiscretion. The desire to...