Religion & Law

Jonathan Rauch has an interesting op-ed derived in part from the Cahn/Carbone book, Red Families v. Blue Families, which has prompted previous conversations on MoJ about policies toward contraception.  I'm more interested in the economic dimension of the red state / blue state divide on family life: forming families at a young age was much easier in the past, when the father could support the family with a high school education and a stable factory job.  In the postindustrial age, more education is needed, and so early procreation has a much more disruptive economic effect on the participants' lives.  (A related reality is that sexual abstinence until marriage looks different if marriage happens at 19 versus marriage happening at 26 or 27.)  This does not negate the truth of any particular moral or religious teaching on sexuality, marriage, and family life, of course, but it does change the set of background considerations, doesn't it?  If parenthood at a young age brings a different set of economic complications today than it did in past generations, should that change the way Catholics (and Christians more broadly) speak about these issues?  To be clear, I'm not proposing that the Church begin teaching that sex outside marriage is morally permissible -- I'm asking whether the conversation about the accompanying hardships needs to change in light of the changing economic reality.  Maybe it's changed already, and I'm just out of the loop.  Thoughts?