Update: Download the Second Edition (PDF), released June, 2007.

For Immediate Release
September 21, 2001

The Alternatives to Marriage Project (AtMP), a national nonprofit organization for unmarried people, today called the bonuses given to states for reducing their unmarried birthrate "scandalous."

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today that Michigan, Alabama, and the District of Columbia would receive $25 million each, as provided for in the welfare reform law of 1996. Between 1996 and 1999, Michigan reduced its non-marital birthrate by 0.009%, Alabama by 0.249%, and the District of Columbia by 3.976%.

AtMP's co-founder, Marshall Miller, said, "The Department of Health and Human Services must be joking! Michigan's rate of births to unmarried parents dropped by less than one-hundredth of one percent. Our government is going to reward that state with $25 million and claim this is an effective use of funds to reduce poverty in America?" These three were the only states eligible for the bonuses. In all other states, the rate of births to unmarried parents increased, according to data from HHS.

Executive director Dorian Solot added, "The District of Columbia has the highest infant mortality rate in the country. Alabama has the sixth highest.* By awarding these bonuses, the government seems to be saying, 'Babies are dying, but at least more of their parents are wearing wedding rings.'" Babies who are born poor are more likely to die than those born to unmarried parents, research shows.**

Solot pointed out that according to the Children's Defense Fund, one-third of children in the District of Columbia, one-quarter of children in Alabama, and one-fifth of children in Michigan are living in poverty.* The report Poverty Matters** found that poverty puts children at greater risk of death, poor health, and poor school performance than living in a single parent family. "Which do we care about: children's well-being, or the marital status of their parents? These are not the same thing," Solot said.

The country's welfare reform laws are due to be re-authorized in 2002. "The goal of welfare is to reduce poverty. We urge lawmakers to modify the laws to reward states for reducing their poverty rates, not their unmarried birthrates," said Solot. "Hungry children can't eat wedding rings."

Department of Health and Human Services press release on the bonuses.

* Children's Defense Fund. 2000 Children in the States. 2000, Data from 1997.

** Sherman, Arloc. Poverty Matters: The Cost of Child Poverty in America. Children's Defense Fund, 1997.