SIOUX FALLS - New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that South Dakota has a high rate of babies being born to unwed women.

The report says 37.4 percent of South Dakota births in 2011 were outside wedlock. That was the 19th-highest rate in the nation.

The report says the rate of U.S. births to unmarried women has been climbing since the 1940s and accelerating in recent years, reflecting changing norms regarding sexual behavior and families.

Concerned Women of America state director Linda Schauer tells the Argus Leader newspaper that one factor contributing to South Dakota's high rate of births outside marriage could be the state's abortion rate, which is less than half what it was in the 1980s.

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