Dive Brief:

• According to a poll conducted by Huffington Post and YouGov, two-thirds of Americans believe comprehensive sex education — including birth control facts — should be provided in schools. 
• Sex education is not required in 28 states, and 19 of the states that do provide it require only abstinence to be covered.
• The poll included a sample of 1,000 people surveyed between late December and early January. 

Dive Insight:

Some facts from the poll: 22% of Republicans said schools should teach abstinence only, versus 9% of self-identifying democrats. The majority of people polled believed sex ed should start at the age 12.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, as of 2012, 70% of states taught abstinence as the most effective birth control.

Interestingly in November, Time magazine reported that, in 2014, there were 50% fewer states requiring sex education in all public school classrooms than in 1994. Time argued that the reason for this reversal was that there are now effective HIV treatments. "Instead of sex ed ending HIV infection among teenagers, treatment for AIDS became a reality and the syndrome stopped being the conversation-ender it once was, freeing parents and educators to go back to war over what should be taught when," says Time writer Lily Rothman.

Still, the Huffington Post poll, while not conclusive, indicates disconnects between the public and those representing them.