( CNN ) -- The long debate on same-sex marriage is coming to an end . A plurality of Americans now support same-sex marriage ; the figure is 63 % among voters under 30 . The rest is just a matter of time . The end of the same-sex marriage debate does not , however , settle the problem of marriage in America . Not remotely . Among the 95 % to 97 % of Americans who are not gay , the institution of marriage continues to weaken -- with ominous consequences for the next generation . About 40 % of all the babies born in the United States are born to unmarried women . Just about everybody agrees that this is a worrying development . As candidate Barack Obama told a Chicago church in 2008 : . `` ( C ) hildren who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime , nine times more likely to drop out of schools , and 20 times more likely to end up in prison . They are more likely to have behavioral problems , or run away from home or become teenage parents themselves . And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it . '' Of course there are exceptions to every rule . On average , however , children born to unmarried women do worse in all kinds of important ways compared to children born to married couples . They are less likely to complete their schooling , more likely to get in trouble with the law , more likely to have children out of marriage themselves , less likely to achieve upward mobility . The data behind these claims are overwhelming , and not seriously contested by any social scientist -- although every once in a while , somebody will publish an article `` in defense of single motherhood '' that brusquely dismisses the evidence with Stephen Colbert style elan : `` I am not a huge believer in studies . '' Same-sex couples take long road to the altar . For those who do believe in social science , the question arises : what to do ? And here 's where the looming end of the debate over same-sex marriage offers real hope . Last week , the Institute for American Values published a major statement in The New York Times . Signed by 74 luminaries of widely diverse political points of view , it called for a `` new conversation about marriage . '' `` The current question is , Should gays marry ? The new question is , Who among us , gay or straight , wants to strengthen marriage ? '' the statement asked . The Institute for American Values is known as a conservative group . In recent years , its leader , David Blankenhorn , has reconsidered his past opposition to same-sex marriage . This rethinking has cost IAV and Blankenhorn dearly . Board members have resigned , funding sources have been cut . Yet at breakfast two weeks ago in New York City , Blankenhorn was undaunted . The challenges that led him into the marriage debate two decades ago have only become more urgent . As the IAV writes : `` ( M ) arriage trends in middle America , particularly among the nearly 60 percent of Americans who 've graduated from high school but do not have a four-year college degree , are more and more resembling the historic marriage trends in poor and low-income America . '' In other words , the middle-class family increasingly looks like the lower-class family -- at an economic moment when it is very easy to tumble out of the middle class and increasingly difficult to climb into it . `` In the wake of the Great Recession and in the midst of severe and possibly long-lasting economic challenges to our society , we propose a new conversation that re-establishes the link between marriage and money , the nest and the nest-egg . What economic policies strengthen marriage ? What marriage policies create wealth ? In the new conversation , marriage and thrift , the two great engines of the American middle class since the nation 's founding , stand best when they stand together . '' The United States is becoming an increasingly class-stratified society . The few at the top enjoy unprecedented affluence . The many in the middle and at the bottom face narrowing opportunities and declining standards of living . The dwindling of marriage is both cause and consequence of America 's evolution away from a society of equal chances . The restoration of marriage is crucial to reviving the middle class and offering hope to the poor . Marriage means two incomes at a time when most Americans find two incomes essential to earning a middle-class livelihood . Marriage secures the active presence of fathers in children 's lives . Marriage means more asset accumulation : Married families save more at every income level . Marriage means fewer accidents and illnesses , less stress , and more happiness and personal fulfillment . Yet even as we reach a new social consensus about marriage 's importance , marriage seems to have become increasingly elusive , difficult , and uncertain . It 's time for all Americans , left and right , gay and straight , to join David Blankenhorn 's `` new conversation . '' The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Frum .
Americans , particularly those under 30 , increasingly support same - sex marriage . Robert Novak says the more pressing issue nationally is how to restore the role of women . Four of every 10 children are born to unmarried women , a worrying development , he says . Frum : Marriage improves economic prospects and education , reduces crime .