The “Correlation” Between Statistics and Eugenics

_{Image "Sir Francis Galton" by Spudgun67 from Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0}

IN 2013, A SERIES of ads about the dangers of teen pregnancy appeared on New York City subway trains. Sponsored by the city’s Human Resources Administration, the ads cautioned prospective teen parents that babies were likely—surprise!—to exact a heavy toll on their finances, relationships, and job prospects. The ads were formulated as plaintive messages from the babies themselves. One teary-eyed toddler lamented: “I’m twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen.” As then-mayor Michael Bloomberg explained, “This campaign makes very clear to young people that there’s a lot at stake when it comes to deciding to raise a child.” The ad campaign was quite rightly ridiculed, in large part because it offered no support services for teens who were, or might become, pregnant.

From a statistical point of view, though, the most objectionable part of the whole campaign was a single word—“because.”

At the bottom of the poster, a footnote contained this statistic: “Kids of teen moms are...