Over 19 million children in America live without a father in the home–about one in four children. This explosive phenomenon of single mother homes has quadrupled since 1950. This dramatic demographic trend has had a destructive impact on our society in general and has been particularly devastating on our nation’s children. Let’s look at a few disturbing facts about fatherless homes that are unraveling the fabric of our culture.

Even before birth, children whose fathers abandon their mothers are four times more likely to die in the womb due to stresses on the mother. Once born, these children are four times more likely to grow up in poverty. Forty-seven percent of children without involved fathers live in households below the poverty level. That is four times the number of father-and-mother households in poverty.

Children of single mothers are nine times more likely to drop out of school, and they account for 71% of all dropouts. These children represent 90% of all homeless and runaway minors. They have four times the risk of obesity.

Children without fathers present have an alarming propensity to become delinquents. Of all children exhibiting behavioral problems, 85% have no paternal influence. They are twice as likely to commit suicide. They are three times more likely to carry guns and deal drugs. Eighty-five percent of all youth in prison are from fatherless homes.

Teens without dads have a significantly greater likehood of being sexually active and are seven times more likely to become pregnant during their teen years. Children raised solely by their mothers are more prone to gender dysphoria.

The old adage, “Correlation does not imply causation” does not apply to father absence. The troubling statistics presented above are directly attributable to the lack of father involvement in children’s lives. Fathers committed to their children and their children’s mothers virtually free their family from those statistics. The most egregious cases of father abandonment begin at pregnancy. However, abandonment caused by divorce or separation after children are born causes other problems like those children’s depression, social dysfunction, anxiety, anger, and lack of discipline.

Mothers are extremely important to the raising of children, but they can never fully fill the void of fathers. Parenting is divinely designed to be a team effort of both a feminine and masculine influence on the lives of children for their optimal development. America will not return to the great nation it once was unless all its fathers honor their God-given, sacred role and responsibility to be present, to provide, to protect, to prepare, to promote, and to praise their children in this increasingly hostile world.

It is past time for the critical need of committed fathers to be emphasized in churches, schools, politics, media, and health care. If we can fix fatherhood in America, we will fix a multitude of other social ills.