California Residents Support Abortion Rights, Favor Sex Education Including Information on Contraceptives, Survey Finds

Sixty percent of California residents say decisions on abortion by the U.S. Supreme Court are very important to them, and 71% do not think Roe v. Wade -- the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down state abortion bans -- should be overturned, according to a survey released on Thursday by the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The survey found that 52% of respondents who identified as evangelical Christians think Roe should be maintained (Yollin, San Francisco Chronicle, 1/5).

Eight in 10 California residents said political candidates' views on abortion rights are very important or somewhat important to them, according to the survey (Williams, AP/San Jose Mercury News, 1/5).

The survey found that 34% of California residents think Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court should be confirmed, while 29% say it should be defeated and 37% are undecided.

Seventy-eight percent of California adults believe sex education instruction in public schools should include information on abstinence, condoms and contraception, and a majority believes the federal government should fund such instruction, according to the survey. About 17% of respondents support programs that include information only on abstinence, the survey found (San Francisco Chronicle, 1/5).

California public schools that teach sex education courses currently are required beginning in the seventh grade to teach students about contraception and abstinence. They also are required to provide students with information on HIV/AIDS at least once during middle school and once during high school.

Sixty-eight percent of adults want local school districts to have jurisdiction over information included in sex education programs, while 9% favor a federally mandated program, according to the survey (AP/San Jose Mercury News, 1/5).

The survey also found that 53% of respondents incorrectly attributed the state's population growth to immigration. Twelve percent of respondents knew that births to California residents are primarily responsible for the state population increase, according to the survey (San Francisco Chronicle, 1/5).

The survey, which was conducted by telephone between Nov. 30 and Dec. 13, included 2,504 California adults and has a sampling error rate of plus or minus two percentage points (Williams, AP/San Jose Mercury News, 1/5). The survey was conducted in Chinese, English, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese (San Francisco Chronicle, 1/5).

The survey is available online. Note: You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to access the survey.