Presidential candidates from both parties tell us that the health of America’s children occupies a special place in their hearts. But despite the promises of better health care or improved education for America’s kids, not a single candidate is making a fuss about one of the most important keys to healthy children: making sure they have a relationship with their father.

“Social science data is crystal clear,” says Peter Cove in the New York Sun. “Children raised by both a mother and a father have dramatically better prospects.” This issue doesn’t lack the potential for political traction: “[T]here’s an epidemic of what might be called ‘father absence’ in the very states that are about to hold primary elections.”

And the facts speak for themselves:

Children born to single mothers suffer greater instances of infant mortality, low birth weight, and delayed cognitive development. Compared with those born to two parents, they are at increased risk for abuse, run away from home more often, battle more mental health deficiencies, and are up to five times more likely to commit suicide.As adolescence sets in, the stakes rise and the ramifications of social dysfunction begin to materialize. Children without a father in their life, regardless of racial and socioeconomic background, are far more likely to engage in criminal activity than their peers in two-parent homes. Children cared for by a single parent are up to 10 times more likely to use drugs and 20 times more likely to spend time in prison than those reared in a traditional family setting.

Fatherlessness is reaching crisis proportions in states across the nation, explains Cove, such as Michigan, South Carolina, Florida, “[y]et not one of the presidential contenders has pushed the connection between fatherless children and social dysfunction to the forefront, despite the indisputable need for new innovations and for action.”

This dearth of fathers is crippling America’s cities, and the solution lies in restoring the role of the father in families. But this cannot happen “without leaders willing to do something about the correlation between a father absence’s and social dysfunction.”

Cove is correct: There is a profoundly strong connection between the role of the father and a healthy family. The truth is, a calculated and earnest war is being waged against fatherhood. You can read Conspiracy Against Fatherhood to learn more about this.