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SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly two-thirds of Utahns want comprehensive sex education in schools, according to a new UtahPolicy poll released Friday — a day after the House Rules committee advanced a bill that would permit parents to opt-in to comprehensive sex education for their children.
Pollsters Dan Jones & Associates surveyed 625 adult Utahns on whether they think Utah schools should take a comprehensive or abstinence-only sex education approach.
Sixty-four percent of respondents said they favor comprehensive sex education. Twenty-five percent said they prefer abstinence-only.
The remaining 11 percent said they didn't know or preferred some other kind of sex education.
Planned Parenthood Association of Utah CEO Karrie Galloway said the results show that parents want help when it comes to teaching their children about sex.
"When we say that people don't want it, who are we listening to?" Galloway said. "We're listening to the people who hang out at the Capitol and have very specific views ... on how everyone should live their lives. But we ask the people, and guess what? They want a little more information."
Derek Monson, the director of public policy at the Sutherland Institute, a Salt Lake conservative think tank, questioned whether respondents understood the term "comprehensive sex education."
"If you asked parents, 'Would you like children being taught how to use condoms in their sex education class?' my guess is the results would turn out quite a bit different," Monson said.
HB246, sponsored by House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, would allow schools to offer comprehensive sex education classes as an option.
Parents would opt-in to the class, which would include information about the correct use of contraceptives — including emergency contraceptives — the testing of sexually transmitted diseases and how to recognize and respond to sexual violence.
Monson said sex education should take place outside of the public school setting in after-school programs or at home.
"It raises concerns for the parents of children who don't want them learning or hearing about that kind of thing," Monson said. "When kids all get back together again after the opt-in class — what's the first thing they're going to do? Ask, 'What did you learn about?' 'They taught us about condoms.'"
Utah schools are required to offer sex education, but parents must opt-in.
Schools aren't allowed to provide instruction or materials that would amount to "the advocacy of homosexuality" or "the advocacy of sexual activity outside of marriage."
The Utah Administrative Code also bans public schools from "the advocacy or encouragement" of contraception.
The UtahPolicy survey found that Republicans were split on whether schools should offer comprehensive sex education, with 50 percent favoring it and 37 percent wanting abstinence-only.
"Very active" Mormons were also split, with 49 percent favoring comprehensive sex education. Eighty-two percent of Protestants responded in favor of comprehensive sex education. So did 76 percent of Catholic respondents.
Democrats and independents also favored comprehensive sex education overwhelmingly, with 95 percent and 73 percent responding in favor respectively.
UtahPolicy reported that the only group of respondents with a majority against King's bill were those who described themselves as "very conservative." Of that group, 54 percent said they preferred abstinence only and 31 percent said they preferred comprehensive sex ed.
King's bill would also require Utah to apply for a federal waiver to provide family planning services to low-income individuals who fall in the Medicaid expansion gap and receive a federal 90 percent match in return.
According to legislative fiscal analysts, the state would pick up the $500,000 yearly tab in exchange for receiving $4,500,000 in federal funds.
The bill will have a public hearing in the House Education Committee. Email: dchen@deseretnews.com Twitter: DaphneChen_
