Earlier this year, the Colorado Democratic Leadership Council proposed an innovative strategy to curb teen pregnancy as part of the 1996 Democratic state party platform. Our goal was to demonstrate that our party is ready to confront this exploding economic and social dilemma.
Much to our dismay, problem denial and resistance to solutions are still much in vogue. Traditional Democrats only emphasize treatment and support of mothers after they have given birth and abhor considering prevention or discouragement before the fact.
Of course, conservatives have not helped matters either. The right simplistically places blame on mothers and coldly seeks solutions that end up punishing children.
While this meaningless debate rages on, record numbers of Colorado's children are being born into poverty by mothers who are kids themselves. In 1960, out-of-wedlock births accounted for five percent of all national births. Now, that figure is close to 30 percent.
The Robin Hood Foundation in New York estimates that teen pregnancies cost the nation $29 billion a year in increased taxes and lost productivity. The social consequences are worse.
These kids of kids grow up impoverished and are often scripted to repeat the very tough lives of their parents. For example, the sons of teen mothers are almost three times more likely to end up in prison. Children are twice as likely to be abused or neglected.
Especially since welfare reform will be a critical issue in the upcoming state legislative session, this cycle must be broken before another generation of disadvantage is born. Colorado needs a strategy that combines offering new opportunities with an insistence on personal and moral accountability.
As President Clinton has said, we must reinforce, in concrete ways, the value of marriage and strong, two-parent families. In addition to radically transforming a culture that accepts unmarried teen childbearing, we must dismantle the incentive system that supports it.
Government must also no longer insulate those responsible for teen pregnancy from the consequences of their actions. Reforms should include ending unqualified public assistance to unmarried teen mothers, requiring accountability from fathers, and punishing male sexual predators. Noncustodial parents must be held responsible for the financial and emotional support of their children.
Specifically, we should offer teen mothers from unsafe or unstable homes a fresh start in supervised group residences called "Second Chance Homes" while they and their children attend school. The mothers themselves would also be required to learn parenting skills and meet other obligations to receive welfare support.
We should also reassert and emphasize the responsibility of fathers for contributing to the financial and emotional support of their children. Paternity establishment should be mandatory and fathers deemed fit should be required to spend time with their kids. All fathers should be required to contribute to their children's financial welfare.
Two-thirds of births by teenage mothers are fathered by men beyond their teen years. Sexual activity between adult men and young teenage girls, typically emotionally vulnerable, is not a consensual act and increases the likelihood of adolescent pregnancy and childbearing. Preventive and punitive measures such as statutory rape laws and sentencing for sex crimes must be strengthened and enforced.
We should launch a state media campaign that spotlights Colorado leaders clearly stating that unmarried teen childbearing is morally wrong. While many in our society accept sex outside of marriage, we must reassert that babies belong inside matrimony.
The message should portray teen parenthood as a selfish act that harms children. It should emphasize the dishonor of men who father kids but cannot support them.
Finally, we must create new opportunities and incentives for young women and men who are at-risk of becoming parents too soon in life. Rather than reinforcing wrong behavior, rewards should be offered to finish school and delay parenting.
Democrats are about strengthening the middle class and helping more citizens achieve the American Dream. If we are true to that important mission, it is time end our party's denial about the crushing economic and social impacts of teen pregnancy.
Like big government, the era of moral relativism is over.
Jim Gibson is President of the Colorado Democratic Leadership Council, a think tank of elected officials and activists interested in forging a new agenda for the Democratic Party.