Religion & Law

Joe Carter writes, at First Things:

Forget the unemployment rate or level of GNP, if you want one statistic that reflects the level of decline in our country you have to look no further than the percentage of out-of-wedlock births:

He quotes this report:  

The black community?s 72 percent rate eclipses that of most other groups: 17 percent of Asians, 29 percent of whites, 53 percent of Hispanics and 66 percent of Native Americans> were born to unwed mothers in 2008, the most recent year for which government figures are available. The rate for the overall U.S. population was 41 percent.

Is there anything that is not horribly depressing about these figures?  Is there anything to be done -- anything that law can do -- within moral and prudential limits to change the facts they reflect?