A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that an overwhelming majority of parents in the United States want their teenagers to receive more comprehensive sex education in school. The study was based on surveys of over 4,000 students, parents, sex education teachers and school principals. Parents want more coverage of topics like birth control and HIV/AIDS, and want schools to address more “controversial” issues like abortion and sexual orientation. Parents also want their children to receive more practical, specific information, such as how to use condoms (85 percent of parents in the study wanted this information included), how to use other forms of birth control (84 percent), abortion (79 percent), and sexual orientation (76 percent). When asked what their school’s sex education curriculum included, 84 percent of students said “abstinence,” while only 61 percent said “abortion” and 41 percent said “sexual orientation.” A June study by the Othmer Institute also concluded that a majority of American parents wanted comprehensive sex education in the schools.
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