Michael Tanner and David B. Kopel

In the following viewpoint, Michael Tanner and David B. Kopel contend that welfare payments have removed a major incentive for poor women to avoid unmarried pregnancy by cushioning the economic hardship of out-of-wedlock childbearing. According to Tanner and Kopel, surveys of inner- city teenage girls reveal carefree attitudes toward having babies out of wedlock, attributable to the availability of welfare. In addition, studies have demonstrated a link between an increase in welfare benefits and a corresponding increase in births to unmarried low-income women, as cited by the authors. Tanner is the author of The End of Welfare: Fighting Poverty in the Civil Society. Kopel is research director of the Independence Institute, a conservative think tank.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. By what percentage have out-of-wedlock births increased since 1960, according to...