TARRYTOWN, NY: CDC "out of touch with the rest of the developed world"

Intact America
December 2, 2014

CDC "out of touch with the rest of the developed world"

TARRYTOWN, NY—Intact America, an organization that opposes the forced genital cutting of babies and children, sharply criticizes today’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) proposed guidelines for circumcision.

The CDC is calling for doctors to tell the parents of male infants, children and adolescents that circumcision has been found to reduce the transmission to men of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The guidelines were released on December 2, 2014, opening a public comment period that will end on January 16, 2015.

“Beyond stating and restating its support for medically unnecessary circumcision, the Centers for Disease Control fails to provide any solid evidence to bolster the case for circumcision as a valid measure for disease prevention,” said Georganne Chapin, an attorney and executive director of Intact America. “The studies cited by the CDC purporting to show that circumcision reduces transmission of STIs were conducted in poor rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa over eight years ago. These studies have never been replicated elsewhere—let alone in the United States—and have no relevance to children or men in the developed world.”

“There have been no systematic studies conducted anywhere about the short-or long-term adverse consequences resulting from circumcision," says director Chapin. "Through thousands of personal stories from boys, men and their parents we know that circumcision causes myriad complications, some requiring surgical correction. Adult consequences include poor body image, painful sex, psychological problems, and erectile dysfunction. The CDC's continued persistence in recommending what they know to be an unnecessary surgery is questionable. It is happening in the face of increased public awareness about circumcision’s harms, declining U.S. circumcision rates, and the growing reluctance of states and insurers to pay for this medically unnecessary surgery.”

Intact America notes that the CDC’s proposed guidelines make no mention of the spontaneous and growing protests around the U.S. and Canada by men who are speaking out angrily about having been forced as children to undergo circumcision.

“As a public health organization, the CDC should be calling for a study of the true risks and complications from circumcision that occur over the lifetime of boys and men,” says Chapin, “before it promotes its evidence-free claim that the benefits of newborn circumcision outweigh its harms.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement in 2012 promoting the benefits of infant circumcision and calling for insurers and state Medicaid programs to pay for the surgery, performed in the U.S. often without anesthesia. This report is at sharp odds with the ethical and medical stance taken by physicians here and in Europe concerning the removal of healthy sexual tissue from children who cannot consent.

In early 2013 in the journal Pediatrics, a large group of physicians, medical organizations, and ethicists from European, Scandinavian, and Commonwealth countries issued a strongly-worded statement , calling American medicine’s support for infant circumcision “culturally biased,” and “different from [the conclusions] reached by physicians in other parts of the Western world, including Europe, Canada and Australia."

In October 2014, Britain’s National Health Service affirmed its previous position stating that, "…most healthcare professionals now agree that the risks associated with routine circumcision, such as infection and excessive bleeding, outweigh any potential benefits."

BOULDER, COLORADO: 13th International Symposium on Genital Autonomy this week

PRWeb
July 19, 2014

13th International Symposium on Genital Autonomy, Children's Rights, and Infant Circumcision

The 13th International Symposium on Genital Autonomy and Children's Rights, "Whole Bodies, Whole Selves: Activating Social Change," will be hosted by the University of Colorado at Boulder on July 24-26, 2014.

The symposium will promote interdisciplinary dialogue about the often controversial topic of genital cutting practices of male, female, and intersex children, and on strategies for protecting children from unnecessary genital alteration.

The conference features speakers from around the world, including the US, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Israel, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Liberia, and Finland. Included are experts in healthcare law, ethics, urology, midwifery, anthropology, pediatrics, medicine, psychology, foreskin repair and restoration, and children's rights. See the program for presentation details.

Several conference presenters are Jewish; some will be speaking specifically about the problems inherent in Jewish ritual circumcision. Jewish presenters include: psychologist Ronald Goldman, who will be speaking about the psychology of circumcision; award-winning journalist Jennifer Margulis will be speaking about the business of circumcision in connection with her recent book The Business of Baby (Scribner 2013); Berkeley, California novelist Lisa Braver Moss will be speaking about non-circumcising families in the Jewish community; social activist Eran Sedah will be speaking (via Skype) about the anti-circumcision movement in Israel; psychiatrist Richard Schwartzman will be speaking about unconscious cruelty--the emotions behind genital cutting; writer/publisher Rebecca Wald will be speaking about the Beyond the Bris website; and documentary filmmaker Francelle Wax will be screening an excerpt from her forthcoming film.

In addition to three days of presentations, three films will be screened in the evenings including: Intersexion by Grant Lahood, John Keir, and Mani Bruce Mitchell; The Hidden Trauma: Circumcision in America (excerpt) by Brendon Marotta; and American Secret: The Circumcision Agenda (excerpt) by Francelle Wax.

These Symposia have taken place every other year since 1989, alternating between the United States and a location abroad. They are an important forum for advancing knowledge and thought on these issues, and for connecting people in the Genital Autonomy Movement from all over the world.

The 13th International Symposium on Genital Autonomy and Children's Rights is sponsored by The National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (USA), Intact America (USA), Genital Autonomy (UK and Australia), and the Sexpo Foundation (Finland). It is locally organized by NOCIRC of Colorado.

Press passes for the symposium are available - please contact Gillian Longley.

Program and registration information is available at: www.GenitalAutonomy2014.com

You can read more about previous nocirc.org/symposia/

Read the full story at www.prweb.com/releases/2014/07/prweb12028739.htm

NORTH AMERICA: Big Foreskin Pride contingents in LGBTI parades

June 30, 2013

Big Foreskin Pride contingents at GLBTI parades

Intactivist contingents at Pride parades were significantly bigger than last year.

Nearly 50 marched in San Francisco under the banner of Bay Area Intactivists:

Bay Area Intactivists

In Toronto, the Star commented:
'The parade also included a group called Foreskin Pride, which advocates the right of people to choose whether or not they're circumcised. Its contingent featured several dozen completely naked and uncircumcised men, one of whom held a sign reading, “Foreskins Feel Really Good.”'


Georganne Chapin of Intact America reported on the Howard Stern show about marchers in New York

There was also a Foreskin Pride contingent in the Chicago Pride parade, and an Intactivist contingent in the San Diego Pride parade. Victoria BC will have a Foreskin Pride contingent in the Pride parade this Sunday, and Vancouver will have one in August. Indianapolis Pride was held on June 8, and included an Intactivist group.

NEW ORLEANS: Intact America confronts Ob/Gyns at their conference

Intact America
May 4, 2013

Intact America Pickets Ob/Gyn Conference

Intact America's mobile banner at the ACOG conference
Genital autonomy activists have gathered in New Orleans to call on the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) to join the global medical community’s movement away from neonatal male circumcision.

Intact America held a press conference, placed an advertisement in the New Orleans Times-Picayune and used a mobile billboard, saying “Tell America’s Obstetricians – No More Circumcision.” The sign includes the message “His Body, His Rights” to underscore the organization’s human rights concerns. Approximately 70 activists were expected to take part in the demonstration, displaying banners, carrying placards, and handing out literature

Executive director Georganne Chapin said, "The leaders of ACOG apparently do not think their members – who, according to estimates, perform at least half of the one million circumcisions in the United States on unconsenting baby boys each year – should hear the arguments that have led medical authorities across the developed world to reject the surgery as unnecessary, inherently risky, and a violation of baby boys’ right to an intact body."

The ACOG rejected IA's application to rent space for an educational booth in the convention’s exhibition hall, saying male circumcision “is only indirectly related to women’s health and of only casual interest to members of ACOG.” So Chapin decided Intact America should communicate with ACOG directly.

“It is both sad and disingenuous that ACOG claims circumcision is of no interest to the very doctors who perform the surgery hundreds of thousands of times each year,” Chapin said. “It is also not surprising they have embraced the widely-discredited 2012 circumcision policy statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)." That policy "lauded the benefits of circumcising infants, while admitting that evidence for such benefits is lacking, acknowledging that the risks have never been adequately studied, and ignoring the ethical problems inherent in permanently removing normal genital tissue from individuals who cannot consent.”

The AAP’s policy was endorsed by ACOG. In contrast, IA endorses the view of 38 international pediatricians, urologists and medical ethicists, whose response to the AAP is published in the its own journal, Pediatrics

“There is growing consensus… that physicians should discourage parents from circumcising their healthy infant boys,” the physicians say, “because non-therapeutic circumcision of underage boys in Western societies has no compelling health benefits, causes postoperative pain, can have serious long-term consequences, constitutes a violation of the United Nations’ Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and conflicts with the Hippocratic oath: primum non nocere: First, do no harm.”

“Intact America’s intent for this demonstration in New Orleans,” said Chapin, “is to make sure ACOG hears and understands the ethical quagmire they have put themselves into.”

NEW ORLEANS: Men do complain - Intact America press conference

Bonobo3D
October 19, 2012

Press conference by Intact America outside the American Academy of Pediatrics convention, New Orleans

Powerful testimonies from Dan Bollinger, Jonathon Conte, Christopher Keyhoe and Anthony Losquadro

Earlier story

NEW ORLEANS: Intact America confronts AAP Convention: AAP tries to have them removed

Washington Post
October 23, 2012

Anti-circumcision activists confront pediatricians

By John Pope| Religion News Service [Religion?]

Intactivists demonstrate that circumcising babies harms the men they become, opposite the AAP convention Picture: James Loewen

NEW ORLEANS — Pediatricians gathered here for the American Academy of Pediatrics convention were greeted by protesters urging the medical group to rethink its position on an issue that makes most people squirm: the circumcision of newborn boys.

And although the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn’t recommend routine removal of infants’ foreskins — that has been its stance since 1999 — its report, released two months ago, does cite literature saying that the procedure can prevent [some] urinary-tract infections, cancer of the penis and sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.

Such benefits, the report says, justify its coverage by private insurance and Medicaid. But opponents, who call themselves “intactivists,” go beyond mere opposition to the circumcision of healthy infants.

Georgeanne Chapin J L

“We say that it’s a human-rights violation to tie down a baby and cut off part of his penis,” said Georganne Chapin, the founding executive director of Intact America, which held a press conference and rally outside the convention on Saturday (Oct. 20).

The AAP convention continues through Tuesday.

Moreover, she said, “There are absolutely no data suggesting that areas with high circumcision rates have healthier boys or areas with low circumcision rates have less healthy boys.”

Data suggest a decline in the percentage of American newborns undergoing the procedure.

...

Anthony Losquadro at the press conference Picture: Barefoot Intactivist

Anthony Losquadro of Brooklyn, N.Y., who spoke at Saturday’s rally at the convention center, said it represents a shift in public opinion.

“Like any change in culture, it takes time,” he said, “but I think people realize that babies are born intact and you don’t need to correct a perfectly functional body part with surgery.”

...

The authors did not take a position on whether newborns should be circumcised. [Everything but...] They also took pains to point out that the data they used didn’t include circumcisions performed outside hospitals, such as those required for boys born into Jewish and Muslim families.

But the reason for the procedure doesn’t matter, said Chapin, whose organization opposes all medically unnecessary circumcisions.

“Our organization is not going after Jews and Muslims,” she said. “We’re saying that all babies are entitled to protection.”

...

Among the speakers at Saturday’s protest were men who were circumcised days after they were born and still profess to be upset by it, even though the procedure occurred decades ago. [Way to dismiss their human rights! Have their foreskins grown back?]

“I do feel a sense that my rights were violated on my second day of life,” Losquadro said.

The foreskin has a role, he said, because it covers the tip of the penis — he likened this role to that of an eyelid — and because it has cells that alert the immune system to potential trouble.

“It evolved for a reason,” he said, “and it’s foolish for doctors to assume that it’s an unneeded flap of skin."

---

Georgeanne Chapin writes:

Saturday, the second day of our protest, two AAP officials convened with police and security guards in front of the convention center. A couple of Intactivists were able to overhear some of the conversation. They asked the police if we could not be forced to leave the area. The police told them no, that we were marching on public property, and that we were breaking no laws.

I actually went up to the man, extended my hand, and introduced myself as Georgnne Chapin, executive director of Intact America. He refused to shake my hand and said, "So what?"

I said I just wanted to introduce myself and I would like to know his name. He said, "I don't agree with anything you do or say," turned on his heel, and walked away.

We had the equivalent of an outdoor, public booth across from the Center; it was a streetcorner, next to an outdoor parking lot, which was next to a Marriott Hotel. On Friday, we had received permission from the lot owner to hang our "I Did Not Consent" banner, and other signs on the chain link fence.


Picture: Intact Lousiana

Around an hour after the AAP officials' unsuccessful attempt to get rid of us, the valet from the Marriott came and told us that the owner of the parking lot said we were trespassing and had to take the banner and signs down.

Dan Bollinger asked to speak with the owner who "didn't have time" to talk with us, but asked the valet if he could give us the guy's number. Dan called him (turns out it was the manager, not the owner), and had a very pleasant conversation, which ended in him agreeing to extend the permission for us to have the signs up for two more days. (We paid him a small fee.)

We are certain that the AAP also had complained to the Marriott, which is what sparked them to contact the parking lot manager (who clearly felt he didn't owe the AAP anything). Very nice. All of that said, we had some good conversations, and I felt that by being on the street rather than in the convention exhibit hall, we were free to say all the things we believe.

Earlier story

NEW ORLEANS: Intact America on streets at AAP Convention: Pediatrics publishes another self-citing Morris letter

PRWeb.com
October , 2012

Intact America Calls on American Academy of Pediatrics to Rescind Pro-Circumcision Report that Violates Ethics, Human Rights of Baby Boys

By Georgeanne Chapin

Click to enlarge Intact America advertisement in New Orleans papers during the AAP Convention

Intact America, the nation’s leading intactivist organization critical of neonatal male circumcision, today called on the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to reject a one-sided Task Force report that presses insurance companies and state Medicaid plans to pay for an unnecessary, and unethical surgery that even the task force cannot see its way clear to recommend.

“The AAP stacked its circumcision Task Force with pro-circumcision doctors and activists, and apparently is afraid to let its members learn the truth about the unnecessary, unethical, and risky surgery that U.S. doctors perform more than a million times a year on baby boys who cannot consent,” said Georganne Chapin, Executive Director of Intact America. The AAP had originally accepted Intact America’s application and payment for a booth at its exhibition hall but then cancelled it without warning after Intact America and others openly criticized the report of its Circumcision Task Force.

Intactivists, as critics of neonatal male circumcision are called, will be coming from around the United States and Canada to protest outside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, where the AAP is holding its annual convention starting on October 20th. They include a number of men expected to express outrage that they were forced to undergo the surgery without their consent.

“They can kick us out of their hall, but they can’t escape the growing realization that they have trapped themselves in an ethical quagmire by seeking reimbursement for surgery the American Medical Association properly calls ‘non-therapeutic,’” Chapin said. “They know that growing numbers of American parents are saying no to the removal of healthy functioning tissue from the genitals of their baby boys in a surgery that is a gross violation of medical ethics and the baby’s basic human rights.”

The AAP action came shortly after Chapin authored an essay appearing in Huffington Post, arguing that the AAP was acting more like a trade association than a doctors’ organization that claims to be “dedicated to the health of all children.” In its report issued this summer, the AAP Task Force acknowledged that there were not enough benefits to justify recommending circumcision, but sought to win approval for reimbursement by insurance companies and the 18 states’ Medicaid programs – including Louisiana’s – where the surgery is currently not covered.

“Although health benefits are not great enough to recommend routine circumcision for all male newborns, the benefits of circumcision are sufficient to justify access to this procedure for families choosing it and to warrant third-party payment for circumcision of male newborns,” the report reads.

The AAP relied heavily on studies of sexually-active adult African men and the role circumcision might play in retarding female-to-male – but not male-to-female – transmission of the HIV virus linked to AIDS. The AAP and Centers for Disease Control correctly report there is no evidence circumcision plays any role in retarding male-to-male HIV transmission, which along with sharing intravenous needles is the predominant mode of HIV transmission in the United States.

“Ethical and scientific problems with the African research aside, trying to extrapolate from studies of sexually active adult African men to infant boys in America is bad science, bad medicine and bad health policy,” Chapin said. “Medical ethics requires necessity and informed consent for something as invasive as surgery. The foreskin is normal tissue, an integral part of the male anatomy; it protects the rest of the penis and plays an important role in sexual pleasure. Babies should be left alone. When they become men, they can make their own informed decision about whether they want to remove a part of their own penises.”

“Not only does the Task Force report blatantly ignore the ethical obligation of physicians to respect their patients' autonomy and do no harm, it repeatedly calls for doctors to be paid [by the taxpayer] for removing healthy, functioning tissue from somebody who cannot consent.” Chapin wrote.

While the male circumcision rate in the United States was around 80 percent 30 years ago, it has steadily dropped to around 50 percent today. In Europe, circumcision rates in most countries are well under 10 percent, and European physician groups and even courts are now calling for doctors to stop performing all child circumcisions that are not medically indicated.

The Royal Dutch Medical Association has recommended against routine male circumcision, the organization calling it a medically-unnecessary form of surgery.

"The patient has to give consent, but children can't give consent and we feel that is wrong and a violation of the child's right,” said Gert Van Dijk, an ethicist at The Royal Dutch Medical Association. "In our code of medical ethics, it states that you must not do harm to the patient, but with this procedure this is exactly what you're doing."

In Denmark, Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has commissioned an investigation into whether non-medical circumcision procedures violate its health code. In Germany, a court ruled in June that non-therapeutic male circumcision amounted to bodily injury and violated human rights provisions of the country's laws. The judge explicitly ruled that the parents' religious freedom cannot override the child's right to physical integrity and self-determination. "The body of the child is irreparably and permanently changed by a circumcision," the judge wrote. "This change contravenes the interests of the child to decide later on his religious beliefs."

Following the German court's decision, hospitals in Austria and Switzerland suspended all medically-unnecessary infant circumcisions. Political discussion continues in Germany over whether religious circumcisions might be allowed, but no European physician organization is contending that there is any medical justification for routinely circumcising babies or children.

The AAP letter kicking Intact America out of the convention hall in New Orleans, sent from its Illinois headquarters and dated October 10th, cited content on the Intact America website and Intact America’s Facebook page for its actions. Intact America and other critics of circumcision have rented exhibition space for years without incident at AAP conventions.

“Pediatricians must be reminded that their patients are the babies,” Chapin said. “If we can’t remind them in the hall, we will remind them in the streets of New Orleans.”

---

Meanwhile, the AAP has printed a second letter from Profressor Brian Morris in support of its policy, while withholding moderate, referenced letters in opposition. Professor Morris' letter cites three papers, all co-authored by himself.

Professor Morris's website still carries material headed with the Gilgal Society logo, and a verse written by the head of the Gilgal Society, Vernon Quaintance, convicted of possessing child pornography, though Professor Morris purged his material of most of the references soon after the conviction. The Gilgal Society continues to advertise Professor Morris's leaflets, though "a major computer failure" prevents them from being available from the site.

Earlier story

ILLINOIS: AAP bans Intact America booth from conference

October 12, 2012

Intact America banned from AAP Conference

By Hugh Young
Intact America has been banned from having a booth at the American Academy of Pediatrics Conference in New Orleans later this month.

The conference will be held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and the Hilton New Orleans Riverside hotel from October 20 to 23, 2012

It includes a session on Tuesday October 23, called "Pros & Cons of Doing Circumcisions" that does not seem to say much about Cons but "aims to explain what one needs to do in order to set up a program to do neonatal circumcisions and how one can become an expert circumciser."

Demonstrators against the AAP's policy on circumcision are expected from all over the United States.

The AAP says...	Intactivists say...

Intact America's press release

Intact America October 11, 2012 INTACT AMERICA, THE NATION'S LEADING CRITIC OF INFANT CIRCUMCISION, KICKED OUT OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS' NATIONAL CONVENTION AAP cites website content, Facebook page for barring exhibition booth for which the group had already accepted payment. Intact America plans protests in streets of New Orleans when AAP meets starting October 20th. TARRYTOWN, NY—The American Academy of Pediatrics, reeling under criticism by advocates for human rights and children’s health of its recent report seeking reimbursement for neonatal male circumcisions, today suddenly canceled a contract that the nation’s leading group criticizing the unnecessary surgery had signed for an exhibition booth at its upcoming convention in New Orleans. “The AAP has stacked the deck by filling its Circumcision Task Force with pro-circumcision doctors and activists, and apparently is afraid to let its members learn the truth about the unnecessary, unethical, and risky surgery its members perform more than a million times a year on unconsenting baby boys,” said Georganne Chapin, Executive Director of Intact America, which has exhibited at several recent AAP conventions without incident. “They can kick us out of their hall, but they can’t escape the growing realization that they have trapped themselves in an ethical quagmire by seeking reimbursement for surgery the American Medical Association properly calls ‘non-therapeutic,’” Chapin said. “They know that growing numbers of American parents are saying no to the removal of healthy functioning tissue from the genitals of their baby boys in a surgery that is a violation of medical ethics and the baby’s basic human rights.” While the male circumcision rate in the United States was around 80 percent 30 years ago, it has steadily dropped to around 50 percent today. In Europe, circumcision rates in most countries are well under 10 percent, and European physician groups and even courts are now calling for doctors to stop performing all child circumcisions that are not medically indicated. The AAP action came shortly after Chapin authored an essay appearing in the Huffington Post, arguing that the AAP was acting more like a trade association than a doctors’ organization that claims to be “dedicated to the health of all children.” In its report issued this summer, the AAP Task Force acknowledged that there were not enough benefits to justify recommending circumcision, but sought to win approval for reimbursement by insurance companies and the 18 states’ Medicaid programs where the surgery is currently not covered. “Although health benefits are not great enough to recommend routine circumcision for all male newborns, the benefits of circumcision are sufficient to justify access to this procedure for families choosing it and to warrant third-party payment for circumcision of male newborns,” the report reads. The AAP relied heavily on studies of sexually-active adult African men and the role circumcision might play in retarding female-to-male—but not male-to-female—transmission of the HIV virus linked to AIDS. The AAP and Centers for Disease Control correctly report there is no evidence circumcision plays any role in retarding male-to-male HIV transmission, which along with sharing intravenous needles is the predominant mode of HIV transmission in the United States. “Ethical and scientific problems with the African research aside, trying to extrapolate from studies of sexually active adult African men to infant boys in America is bad science, bad medicine and bad health policy,” Chapin said. “Medical ethics requires necessity and informed consent for something as invasive as surgery. The foreskin is normal tissue, an integral part of the male anatomy that protects the rest of the penis and plays an important role in sexual pleasure. Babies should be left alone; when they become men, they can make their own informed decision about whether they want to remove a part of their own penises.” “Not only does the AAP Task Force report ignore the ethical obligation of physicians to respect their patients' autonomy and do no harm, it repeatedly calls for doctors to be paid for removing healthy, functioning tissue from somebody who cannot consent,” Chapin wrote. The AAP letter, sent from its Illinois headquarters and dated October 10th, cited content on Intact America's website and Intact America’s Facebook page in withdrawing the organization’s approval for the exhibit booth. The letter notes that the AAP respects Intact America’s right to protest outside the convention center, which was something already planned for the weekend of the convention. “Pediatricians must be reminded that their patients are the babies,” Chapin said. “If we can’t remind them in the hall, we will remind them in the streets of New Orleans.”

Intact America operates under the auspices of the Hudson Center for Health Equity & Quality, a not-for-profit organization that is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue code.

TARRYTOWN, NY: Intact America

Intact America
August 22, 2012

INTACT AMERICA CONDEMNS ANTICIPATED CIRCUMCISION STATEMENT FROM AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS

Group Opposed to the Non-Therapeutic Genital Cutting of All Children Calls AAP “Shockingly Biased and Out of Touch with Medical Ethics and Children’s Rights”


TARRYTOWN, NY—Intact America, an organization founded in 2008 to ensure that all children are protected from permanent bodily alteration inflicted on them without their consent, is criticizing the anticipated August 27 release by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) of its new “Circumcision Policy Statement.” Based on comments to the press made by members of the AAP’s Task Force on Circumcision, which authored the document, Intact America deplores the Statement’s focus on selective evidence supporting medical benefits of removing normal foreskins from baby boys.

Georganne Chapin, Executive Director of Intact America, stated today, “From the AAP Circumcision Task Force’s pre-publication comments, it is clear that the group has chosen to feature only literature (almost exclusively focused on adult men in Africa) that supports its predisposition toward circumcising boys; the Task Force has failed to consider the large body of evidence from the developed world that shows no medical benefits for the practice, and has given short shrift, if not dismissed out of hand, the serious ethical problems inherent in doctors removing healthy body parts from children who cannot consent.”

In 2010, Intact America responded similarly when the AAP issued a new Policy Statement on Ritual Genital Cutting of Female Minors; this statement called for doctors to be allowed to inflict a “ritual nick” on infant girls’ genitalia for “cultural” reasons, in contravention of Federal law prohibiting any such cutting. The AAP’s policy statement also acknowledged that, “Some forms of FGC [performed in African cultures] are less extensive than the newborn male circumcision commonly performed in the West.” Pressure from Intact America and other groups opposing Female Genital Mutilation resulted in the quick retraction of the AAP’s call for tolerance of and doctors’ participation in the ritual cutting of baby girls, and in the issuance of a revised policy condemning “all types of female genital cutting that pose risks of physical or psychological harm.” Intact America maintains that any alteration or cutting performed on the normal, healthy genitalia of minors is an unethical act that ignores the well-established right of all individuals to bodily integrity.

“It is clear,” said Ms. Chapin, “that the AAP is blind to the mounting worldwide movement against the genital cutting of boys. This American physician organization is disregarding the risks and harms of the procedure. It also is ignoring the fact that circumcision is rare in Europe, with no negative health consequences, and that European politicians and physician groups—in increasing numbers—are calling for doctors to refuse to perform the procedure, on the basis that it is harmful and violates children’s rights and bodies. In its selective blindness, the AAP has failed to put the wellbeing of the infants and children it is supposed to protect ahead of that organization’s cultural bias and interest in perpetrating a medically unnecessary, harmful, and unethical practice.”

About Intact America
Intact America was formed in 2008 to change the way America thinks about neonatal male circumcision. Intact America believes that painful and medically unnecessary surgery to remove healthy genital tissue from non-consenting baby boys violates medical ethics and human rights. Intact America is based in Tarrytown, N.Y. Visit Intact America at www.intactamerica.org, on Facebook, and on Twitter.