During a January 28, 2016 campaign event at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, IA Sanders was asked a question about federal sex education. He responded by saying:
“I agree [that many kids throughout the country do not have access to sex education and we plan to replace abstinence only education with comprehensive sex education]… [Sexuality] is a reality of human life and either we can ignore it or pretend that it doesn’t exist and we can live in ignorance with regards to sexuality or we can look at it scientifically and seriously… I think we need honest discussions. People may have different ideas about what but it is a part of human life. It needs to be discussed frankly and abstinence only is certainly not the only answer.”