Utah is one of three places to receive $25 million from the federal government for significantly decreasing out-of-wedlock births.

Utah, New York and the District of Columbia received the hefty bonuses from the Administration for Children and Families, an agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The three recipients reduced their ratio of out-of-wedlock births to total births while at the same time decreasing their abortion rate.

The awards are part of the seventh round of state bonuses for out-of-wedlock birth reductions under the welfare reform law of 1996.

"Recognizing the dignity of every human person and encouraging healthy marriages and stable families is essential to welfare reform," said Health and Human Services assistant secretary Wade F. Horn in making the announcement Wednesday.