Sam Brownback: “I want to show the portion of children entering broken families has more than quadrupled since 1950. I think a lot of us…”

“I want to show the portion of children entering broken families has more than quadrupled since 1950. I think a lot of us in this room were born in the 1950s. We can see on this chart the children born out of wedlock and as parents are divorced in 1950 is about 12 percent or so. Going to the year 2000, it is up to about 55 percent. The reason that is problematic is we know children operate and function best in a family with a mom and a dad and a low-conflict union. We know that marriage is incredibly important to the formation of these children for the next generation. That does not mean they cannot succeed in this type of setting. They can, and many do. It just means the odds are tougher. It is more difficult for them. Now if we take this institution of marriage that is already having difficulty, already is having trouble staying together, and say to it basically we are going to define it differently now than we have through 5,000 years of human existence--and the reason it has been defined this way for 5,000 years of human existence is there is a natural order to us. We know that marriage is between a man and a woman. It is written in our hearts. We understand that. A law does not have to be written on it; it is in the natural order of mankind.”