KENYA: Knife-rapists go door-to-door

Citizen Digital
December 15, 2016

Circumcisers in Kuria embark on door-to-door forceful circumcision

by George Juma For Citizen Digital

Police in Kuria East Sub County have vowed to take punitive measures against elders and circumcisers in the region who have embarked on a door-to-door forceful traditional cut for both males and females. ["Forceful circumcision" is a double euphemism. It would be better called "rape by knife".]
 
The circumcisers and the elders, also known as Wazee wa Kimila, reportedly move door-to-door fishing out the girls and boys who are yet to face the cut and ferrying them forcefully for circumcision at established places.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, Kuria East Sub County Deputy County Commissioner Mr Westly Koech said that so far they have arrested several people linked to the outlawed exercise during their ongoing anti-FGM operations in the region.

On Monday, Mr Koech said they arrested three suspects who were found moving door-to-door harassing the family of the uncircumcised individuals and have put them behind bars.

He said the group of circumcisers and the elders are crisscrossing the sub county on a motorbike looking for uncircumcised people and forcing them to undergo the cut.

The DCC said old men who had been circumcised at health facilities are also being forced to undergo the traditional cut, adding that police on Monday rescued an old man who was being ferried on a motorcycle for circumcision.

Mr Koech has issued a stern warning to the circumcisers and any other person linked to FGM in Kuria or forceful circumcision for men in the region saying that they are not going to spare them in the ongoing crackdown in the region.

He further faulted the victims of such harassment saying that most of them are not willing to come to the station to record statements to enable police to take action. He, however, assured that they are pursuing the suspects.

FLORIDA: Boy spite-circumcised, has leukaemia, father keeps mother away

It's official: he's cut. Ah well, only 13 years till he can sue...

the Sun-Sentinal (Florida)
December 15, 2015

Boy at center of circumcision fight has acute leukemia; mom seeks visits

by Marc Freeman
The 5-year-old Palm Beach County boy whose parents' battle over circumcision was followed around the world now is in a fight for his life.

The child was diagnosed with acute leukemia last month — apparently soon after he was finally circumcised as his father long wished, according to developments revealed for the first time in court on Tuesday.

But the mother, Heather Hironimus — who was jailed for nine days in May until she consented to the circumcision — asked the court to let her see her boy as he undergoes chemotherapy treatments. The boy's father, Dennis Nebus, has had temporary full custody since mid-May, after Hironimus hid with the boy for almost three months in a Broward domestic violence shelter.

Nebus wants Circuit Judge Jessica Ticktin to bar Hironimus from any visits because of claims she "willfully" violated a prior court order by posting on social media about the child — in his case the leukemia diagnosis — in Facebook posts that apparently were distributed on the Internet by anti-circumcision activists.

"She has shown total disregard for this child," argued May L. Cain, attorney for Nebus, further blasting Hironimus and her attorney for their decision to "feed the press" by announcing in recent court pleadings the circumcision has happened.

"You know that all of the things that have gone on in this case and in the pleadings have been picked up by the media," Cain told Hironimus while asking her questions Tuesday. "You were on the front page of the Sun Sentinel, right? You didn't think that putting out there that your child was circumcised is a private matter that should have been private for him? Do you think that the world has the right to know that he's been circumcised?" [But the ownership of his genitals was not a private matter that should have been private for him?]
 
Brian M. Moskowitz, the West Boynton mom's lawyer, told the judge that because the boy has been circumcised there is no longer a reason for the court to keep her from the child because she would have no reason to kidnap him.

"The issue of circumcision has been removed, and that was the underlying basis for the order" giving Nebus, of Boca Raton, custody, Moskowitz said. "The circumstances have changed."

The attorney also said the child's medical crisis is even more reason for the court to allow her access to the boy.

"This is when the child needs both parents more than ever," Moskowitz said. The 31-year-old mother has seen the child only one time — in his hospital room on Nov. 10 after Nebus, 48, told her about the boy's condition — since her arrest in May.

The child is now in remission and living with Nebus, but still has chemotherapy treatments ahead to ensure the boy has a good chance of being cured, according to Dr. Carmen Ballestas, his pediatric oncologist.

Ticktin said she would consider the positions of both sides before issuing her ruling on the mother's request for visitation rights "as soon as I can."

In September, before the diagnosis, Hironimus was granted permission for supervised visits with the child at a neutral site, a Delray Beach family center, with a plan for an off-duty cop watching at her expense. But the visits never happened because of continued quarrels among the parents over details about the meetings, such as Nebus insisting she not accompany the boy into a bathroom.

Then, in early November, Hironimus was suddenly summoned to the hospital for her long-awaited reunion with her son — just not as she ever envisioned. She spent 3-1/2 hours in the hospital room with him, playing together with his toys and watching the movie "Finding Nemo."

After she told the boy she would be back the next day, "He had a big smile on his face," she said. But when Hironimus returned to the hospital she said she was met by security guards preventing her from coming to the room.

Hironimus testified that she only posted online about the boy's diagnosis so her family and friends could pray for him. She said she's no longer in direct contact with the circumcision opposition groups that supported her after she decided to fight the procedure she agreed to in a 2012 parenting plan.

"We have a mother here who consistently does not follow the rules," Cain told the judge. [We have a mother here who consistently puts her son's welfare ahead of "rules" unconscionably imposed by a control-freak father through a compliant court.]

Hironimus still remains bound by the conditions of a pretrial intervention agreement that resolved her criminal case in July. Hironimus was not required to plead guilty, but she admitted "responsibility for interfering with a lawful custody order."

She's required to undergo a mental health evaluation [but Nebus isn't?] and finish all recommended treatment; submit to random drug testing; and check in with a probation officer once a month.

The State Attorney's Office will drop the felony count in the summer if Hironimus successfully meets the requirements, including the completion of a four-hour parenting course. If she fails, she could once again face prosecution and a maximum punishment of five years in prison for a conviction.


Earlier story

FLORIDA: Secret agreement reached over visits to cut-dispute boy

Sun-Sentinel (Palm Beach, Florida)
September 16, 2015

Parents in circumcision fight appear to settle visitation dispute after judge, attorneys meet privately

by Marc J. Freeman
Heather Hironimus may soon be allowed supervised visits with the son she hid for months this year during her highly publicized battle against his circumcision. But the terms negotiated by attorneys Wednesday were not publicly disclosed after a judge abruptly halted a court hearing and convened private talks.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jessica Ticktin printed copies of the agreement from her computer and distributed them to the attorneys through a courthouse deputy, more than two hours after she began meeting in her chambers with attorneys for the West Boynton mother and Dennis Nebus, father of the nearly 5-year-old boy.

The dialogue continued sometimes with and without the judge, who did not return to the bench to adjourn court after Hironimus and Nebus signed the pact. Hironimus has been seeking a reunion with her child for the first time since mid-May. The Boca Raton father has had temporary full custody.

Judge Ticktin did not return a call to the Sun Sentinel from a message left with her assistant, and the attorneys hurried past a reporter without commenting on what happened in place of an advertised, three-hour public court hearing. The official online court docket for the case did not show the agreement had been posted Wednesday night.

It was the latest twist in a battle that generated international headlines after Hironimus violated family court orders and fled with the boy to a Broward domestic violence shelter for about three months, until she was arrested and jailed for nine days.

She became the champion of circumcision opposition groups, after she decided to fight the procedure she agreed to in a 2012 parenting plan.

Wednesday's hearing began as expected, with Hironimus watching her attorney, Brian M. Moskowitz, arguing for her to visit with her son at a neutral site, a Delray Beach family center, with an off-duty cop watching at her expense.

"A mom has the absolute right to see her child as long as she abides by the law," the attorney said. He promised she will behave, because a violation could void a deal resolving her separate criminal case concerning an interference with custody charge and land her back in Palm Beach County Jail.

Hironimus, who signed a consent to the circumcision in May, "has no idea if her son has been circumcised," Moskowitz said of the procedure.

May L. Cain, attorney for Nebus, only said her client has been stymied each time he has tried to schedule the medical procedure, because of threats and intimidation from "crazy groups." [The only threats have been of legal action. It's not a medical procedure. The boy has no symptoms and no diagnosis.]
 
"Some of them call themselves intactivists," she told the judge.

Still, Nebus is agreeable to Hironimus being a part of her son's life if security precautions — including at least one deputy in the room along with a "parenting coordinator" — are put in place, Cain said.

"We're still afraid these groups are going to abduct this child," she said. "My client's main concern is to keep the parties' son safe."

His ground rules: The mother doesn't say a word about circumcision to the boy; she gets one, one-hour visit per week; and no photography will be allowed during the visits.

"We feel those photos will end up online somehow," Cain said, noting that in the past the child's maternal grandmother was responsible for leaking the "most private details of the child's life" on the Internet.

Nebus' hesitation is a result of the protracted circumcision battle and a lack of trust when it comes to Hironimus considering how she first tried to get state courts to block the surgery and then fled with the boy.

"The mother told the child the father was dead," Cain told the judge. "This is not," the attorney explained, "your normal run-of-the-mill case."

Both attorneys had announced they were calling several witnesses, including Hironimus and Nebus.
Judge Ticktin then said, "Counsel, why don't we take five minutes?" and called Cain and Moskowitz back to her chambers.

That left Nebus, 48, and Hironimus, 31, sitting in awkward silence, alone at opposing tables, for more than 45 minutes until their attorneys emerged without the judge.

The back-and-forth negotiations in the judge's chambers continued without explanation. Hironimus' criminal defense attorney, Richard Tendler, also joined some of the talks.

Hironimus appeared to be pleased upon signing the agreement, totally different from the scene that played out at the same table on May 23, when she cried and shook while signing a circumcision consent form.

On July 16, her criminal case was resolved as well, with a pretrial intervention agreement. Hironimus was not required to plead guilty, but she admitted "responsibility for interfering with a lawful custody order."

She's required to undergo a mental health evaluation and finish all recommended treatment; submit to random drug testing; and check in with a probation officer once a month. [Shouldn't Nebus, who has repeatedly and at length tried to force unnecessary surgery on the boy, be undergoing a mental health evaluation?]
 
The State Attorney's Office will drop the felony count in one year if Hironimus successfully meets the requirements, including the completion of a four-hour parenting course. If she fails, she could once again face prosecution and a maximum punishment of five years in prison for a conviction.

Earlierstory

NOTTINGHAM: Mother furious at baby cut without her consent

Daily Mail (UK)
August 2, 2015

Mother's fury after doctor circumcises three-month-old baby boy at request of Muslim father WITHOUT her consent

by Ross Slater
Father asked for his boy to stay the night and secretly took him to doctor
Dr Balvinder Mehat carried out the private procedure on request
Baby's mother said: 'I knew this was something my baby's father wanted, but I didn't agree with it at all'
 
A doctor faces a police inquiry after he performed a circumcision on a three-month-old baby without the mother's consent in Nottingham.

Dr Balvinder Mehat was asked by the child's father's family to carry out the private procedure in accordance with their Islamic faith, but the boy's mother was horrified when she found out.

The unmarried 26-year-old, who did not want to be named, said: 'I knew this was something my baby's father wanted, but I didn't agree with it at all.

'I spoke to my health worker and GP about it, and they said that if it was only my name on the birth certificate there was no way it could happen.'

The parents, who both live in Nottingham, were in a casual relationship when the baby was conceived. After the birth, the father visited his son every week.

When the boy was three months old, the father, whose family originate from Pakistan, asked if his son could stay the night to mark Eid, the end of Ramadan. 'I agreed because it seemed fair,' said the boy's mother.

'The next day I was woken up by a phone call from his grandmother asking me for his GP's details for the circumcision appointment.

'I didn't know what she was on about and gave them to her to avoid a row. I then started ringing and texting them to say that no way should they do anything to my son. I got no response. Then a couple of hours later I got a text saying, 'It's done.' I couldn't believe it.'

The child had been taken to the Bakersfield Medical Centre in Nottingham and given a 'Plastibell circumcision', which is a ten-minute surgical procedure. The mother was horrified by the sight of the wound when she went to collect her child.

She was given a post-operative care sheet warning her that 'common complications can be bleeding and infection'. The furious mother told her health visitor, who in turn informed social services.

'A social worker came to see me,' said the mother, 'but she was only interested in my emotional state and in arranging contact for the father's family as I wouldn't allow them access.

'I rang the medical centre and Dr Mehat later rang me back. He was very aggressive.'

According to General Medical Council guidance, doctors should 'get consent from all those with parental responsibility.

If you cannot get consent for a procedure, for example because the parents cannot agree, you should inform the child's parents that you cannot provide the service unless you have authorisation from the court'.

Dr Mehat qualified as a medic in 1984 and became a GP in 2006. When contacted by The Mail on Sunday, he issued a statement through the Medical Protection Society, saying:
'I am sorry to hear of the concerns that have been raised, but it would be inappropriate for me to comment further due to patient confidentiality. I would like to reassure my patients that I always strive to provide the best possible care.'

A spokesman for Nottingham Police said: 'We can confirm that the matter has been reported to us and that inquiries are ongoing.'

ESSEN, GERMANY: Hospital deters parents from cutting

The Jewish Post
July 21, 2015

German hospital working to deter parents from circumcising

Despite legislation enshrining the right to circumcision [or rather, to circumcise], the ritual still faces opposition in Germany, according to a local media outlet, which reported that a hospital in Essen is trying to convince parents to forgo the procedure for their sons.

The DerWesten.de news website cited Dr. Peter Liedgens, the director of pediatric surgery at Elisabeth Hospital, saying that he has managed to persuade three quarters of parents at his hospital to rethink circumcision. As a result, only 11 circumcisions were performed in the first quarter of 2015, down from 70 during the corresponding period the previous year.

The website also claimed that now the hospital would cease to perform any childhood circumcisions. However, a hospital spokesman clarified to The Jerusalem Post that, while it still performs circumcisions and has no plans on stopping, it performs them only on children above the age of one and only under general anesthesia.

“Circumcisions are performed only by our pediatric surgeons and not by ritual circumcisers on hospital grounds. So the new policy doesn’t really change anything concerning this procedure,” explained spokesman Thomas Kalhöfer.

Asked if the hospital would actively try to deter religious families from circumcising their children, Kalhöfer said that, “We respect the religious grounds of families asking for circumcision, and we don’t actively want to persuade them to desist.

“Our surgeons are arguing from a medical standpoint according to the new medical guidelines of the German Society of Pediatric Surgeons, who recommend to perform circumcision only for medical reasons,” he said, adding that the hospital’s policy toward circumcision has been in place since the beginning of the year.

In 2012, a court in Cologne ruled circumcision a form of bodily harm subject to criminal penalties, causing an international furor and vehement protests from Jewish organizations and the State of Israel.

While the Bundestag moved swiftly to pass legislation enshrining the right of German citizens to undergo circumcisions [no, to genitally cut non-consenting minors - the right of adults to be cut was never restricted], several German medical associations came out strongly against the practice.

“There is no reason from a medical point of view to remove an intact foreskin from underage boys or boys unable to give consent,” the German Pediatric Association asserted in a 2012 statement.

Jewish groups have expressed growing concern over circumcision in recent years, in the face of campaigns to ban the practice in several countries and a 2013 resolution by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which described circumcision as a “violation of the physical integrity of children.”

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “The health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks, but the benefits are not great enough to recommend universal newborn circumcision,” and “the final decision should still be left to parents to make in the context of their religious, ethical, and cultural beliefs.”

“The Simon Wiesenthal Center calls upon authorities to insist that the religious rights of Jews and Muslims be protected,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the center.

While Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt of the Conference of European Rabbis mused that “the decision of the hospital is not based on questions of the legality of circumcision, which is guaranteed by German law, but on the fact that less and less Muslims are interested in this procedure, a fact showing the assimilation of Muslims into a post Judeo-Christian Europe.”

However, the hospital’s policy does show “a certain bias,” he said, adding that “for Jews the address for Brit Mila [circumcision] should be the synagogue and not the hospital.” 

MEXICO: Students cut baby penis as "umbilical cord"

Stuff (New Zealand)

July 18, 2015

Medical students chop off baby's penis by accident

A newborn's penis has reportedly been mistaken for his umbilical cord.

Medical students have reportedly mistaken a newborn's penis for his umbilical cord and chopped it off.

The undergraduates made the shocking blunder in the delivery room in the City of Saltillo in the state of Coahuila, north-eastern Mexico, The Sun reported, and then tried to hide the boy from his parents.

The child's father Diego Rangel Izaguirre grew suspicious when he was denied access to his son for more than two hours after his birth. He was told that his son had suffered a minor injury and would need surgery.

"When my child was born and they cut his umbilical cord they injured his penis.

"And unfortunately when the surgeon started sewing it, he made other two new injuries, almost two centimetres deep."

The baby's mother, Zulem Contreras, said: "This shouldn't have happened, they should have assigned a gynaecologist to take care of him, not students."

The couple have made an official complaint but hospital officials claim the newborn is healthy and that the operation was both minor and the baby's parents gave their consent.

"According to the information available at the moment, during the labour, when cutting the umbilical cord, incidentally the foreskin was injured and was corrected with the usual procedure of circumcision to the minor," the Mexican Institute of Social Security said.

[Circumcision does not of course "correct" an injury to the foreskin, but causes one.]

FLORIDA: Mother cops plea to keep custody from spite-circumcision father

Associated Press
July 16, 2015

Woman in Son's Circumcision Fight Pleads in Custody Case

A Florida woman who was jailed in her fight against her son's circumcision can avoid additional jail time on a child-custody charge.

Thirty-year-old Heather Hironimus of Boynton Beach entered a plea Thursday allowing her to avoid prosecution for interfering with child custody if she doesn't land in trouble in the next year.

Hironimus had fled with her 4-year-old son to avoid the circumcision that the boy's father wanted and judges agreed should be performed.

She was jailed on a contempt charge, but freed after she agreed to the procedure. The child-custody charge was the last legal hurdle remaining for her.

Hironimus' attorney, Richard Tendler, tells The Palm Beach Post his client "is relieved the matter is behind her and looks forward to moving on with her life."

Earlierstory

FLORIDA: Spite-circumcision looming; doctor threatens to file complaint

the Broward Palm Beach New Times (Florida)
June 10, 2015

Hironimus Circumcision Case: Doctor Threatens to File Complaint Against Hospital

by Deirdra Funcheon
John Trainer, M.D., is a family doctor in Jacksonville. He has circumcised children and taught other doctors how to perform circumcisions. His own son is circumcised.

But during the past few months, as he's followed the case of 4-year-old Chase Hironimus — whose father won a highly publicized legal battle against his mother regarding whether the boy should be circumcised — Trainer reexamined his own position on the surgery and has come to believe that routine infant circumcision is a violation of medical ethics and that Chase's case is particularly egregious because the mother's consent was forced under duress.

Now, he is threatening Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, where a doctor is rumored to be circumcising Chase this week, saying that if the surgery proceeds, he will file a complaint with the state Department of Health, which would then have to consider the matter. So far, the matter has been treated in state court as a contract dispute, but this could force a different set of authorities — medical administrators — to look at it in a new light.

Hironimus, in a contract signed years ago, agreed to the circumcision but changed her mind as the boy aged and she learned more about the procedure. A judge ruled that the circumcision could proceed, and she fled with the child and was caught months later and jailed. She was forced to sign a consent form for the procedure or else remain in jail indefinitely. She signed it, crying hysterically in a courtroom.

From a physician's point of view, Trainer told New Times, "it's absolutely mind-boggling this would be considered as real consent." Of the doctor rumored to be scheduled to perform a circumcision on Chase — Gary Birken — Trainer said, "it is incumbent on him" to be "aware that this is a dramatic case, an unusual case.

"Where this this galls me the most," Trainer says, "is that if we are physicians and ethical and called on to police our profession," and the doctor here "either knew or should have known" — that's the phrasing commonly used in ethical standards — "that consent was tainted," and if he proceeds in this particular case, "at the very least his ethics need to be challenged."

Furthermore, he said, pediatric surgery ethics require that a doctor make the child aware of what is happening and consider the child's opinion in elective surgeries. Court documents asserted that Chase was scared of and does not want the procedure.

Trainer says he has no personal connection to the case, but as he followed it and engaged with anticircumcision activists, it was like the "allegorical scales falling off my eyes."

Circumcision in America was popularized by John Harvey Kellogg in the 1800s to prevent masturbation. Trainer says it's absurd that "the cereal magnate could still have impact on human anatomy 100 years later — I think it's barbaric and cruel." In a circumcision, he says, irrespective of the pain to the child, "you have an open wound in a soiled diaper with urine and feces. If we were asking any other surgeon to do this under these circumstances, it would be 'reductio ad absurdum.'"
It's also, he says, "the only procedure an obstetrician will do on a man — and with absolutely no follow-up. They'll never see that penis again — no follow-up. This is unheard-of with any other procedure."

Asked if he faced any career risks by preemptively speaking out against a doctor or hospital, Trainer said, "I am on the Board of Directors of Baptist Primary Care, a leader in a consortium of 150 providers — the largest and most trusted health-care system in Northeast Florida. If I suffer backlash for speaking out, I am OK with that. Actually, my Facebook page is blowing up with people commending me for being courageous. I don't really feel that brave."

Activists have launched a letter-writing and social media campaign to warn doctors not to circumcise Chase. Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital has acknowledged on Facebook that it is aware of the objections, writing:
We have heard your concerns loud and clear. We recognize this is an emotionally charged topic and case, evident by the number of posts to this page from people in and outside our community. Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital has been a pillar in the South Florida community and an advocate for many causes, always working for the benefit of its patients while providing quality service and care. We ask that you respect the confidentiality of all our patients as cases evolve. Please understand that we can't and will not discuss specifics in this forum due to HIPAA guidelines. A protest at the hospital was scheduled for today at 11 a.m.

[The story is progressing rapidly. A further statement from the hospital says -
...the child in question is not a patient at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital or any Memorial Healthcare System facility or of Dr. Gary Birken. - yet leaked medical records show him as one. An emergency legal threat from another lawyer appears to have at least postponed the operation.]


Earlier story

ZIMBABWE: Man sentenced for cutting nephew

ZimEye
May 30, 2015

Man Circumcises Boy With Home-Made Knife

An elderly man from Mucheke Village under Chief Murinye in Masvingo District has been jailed for six-month after he tied and forcibly used a home-made knife to circumcise his nephew, a 16-year-old boy who has a mental problem.

82 year Kufakunesu Pagwaringira appeared before Regional Magistrate Judith Zuyu.

The court heard that on May 17, this year, around 1100 hours the accused called the complainant Gibson Hwekave into his house and asked him to get some nice clothes so that they could go to church, and the complainant complied.However Pagwaringira tied Hwekwave’s hands behind his back. The accused person force-marched the complainant to a mountain and ordered the complainant to lie down.He removed Hwekwave’s pair of trousers and produced a knife from his pocket and cut the foreskin of the complainant’s penis and applied some herbs.

It is suspected that Pagwaringira circumcised the boy because he has been sexually abused from time to time and Pagwaringira felt that he could protect him from sexually transmitted diseases by removing his foreskin.

Pagwaringira pleaded with the court to give him a non-custodial sentence since he was the only one looking after the mentally challenged boy.

Magistrate Zuyu slapped Pagwaringira with a 6 month imprisonment wholly suspended for 5 years.

An unknown caller tipped the Police who discovered that a home-made knife had been used to circumcise the boy. The accused was arrested and the knife was then recovered as an exhibit. The complainant was referred to hospital for medical examination by a medical doctor who compiled the medical report. 

FLORIDA: Tearful handcuffed mother signs genital cutting consent

Yahoo! news (AP)
May 22, 2015

After week in jail, Florida mom agrees to son's circumcision

by Matt Sedensky
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman's yearslong battle with her child's father over the boy's circumcision ended Friday after she agreed to the procedure in exchange for her release from jail.

In a remarkable turnaround after a week behind bars for contempt and an initial hearing in which she was ordered to remain jailed, court reconvened and a sobbing Heather Hironimus signed paperwork giving approval for the 4-year-old boy's surgery, recoiling in tears and clasping her shackled hands after it was done. The shift, though under duress, threatened the hero status given to Hironimus by a bubbling movement of anti-circumcision advocates who have followed the case's every turn.

She remained jailed Friday afternoon and was due back in court Tuesday on a separate criminal charge of interfering with child custody. It was not clear how soon she would be released.

Attorneys for both Hironimus and the boy's father, Dennis Nebus, declined to comment, citing an ongoing gag order in the case.

Georganne Chapin, executive director of Intact America, which advocates against circumcision, said Hironimus had been "bullied" into signing, calling it the "saddest commentary on the court."

"I don't know what's in his head," she said of Judge Jeffrey Gillen, who presided over the case. "I don't know how he can sleep at night."

Hironimus and Nebus had initially agreed to the circumcision in a parenting agreement filed in court, but the mother later changed her mind. Circuit and appellate judges sided with the father, but potential surgeons backed out after failing to get the mother's consent and becoming the target of protesters.

Hironimus went missing with the boy in February, ignoring warnings from Gillen to be in court and allow the circumcision to proceed. She remained missing until her arrest last week, staying in a domestic violence shelter. With her legal options dwindling, she filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of her son, looking for a solution outside state court.

But her attorney abruptly withdrew that case Wednesday, two days after its first hearing, when a judge expressed open skepticism of its merits.

Upon arriving in court Friday, chained at the wrists and ankles and wearing a navy blue jail jumpsuit, Hironimus quietly invoked her Fifth Amendment rights when asked whether she had signed the consent agreement. Gillen said Hironimus would be jailed indefinitely unless she did.

Her mother, Mary Hironimus, fought back tears but said her daughter was right to fight for her son.
"Of course it's worth it," she said, "any mother would do anything for her child."

Gillen approved a motion by Nebus' attorney, May Cain, to temporarily give the father sole decision-making over matters including his son's health and to travel out of state, if needed, to have the circumcision performed. Cain said her client had been receiving death threats and warnings his son would be kidnapped.

"I am fearful that the child might be abducted," Gillen said.

After Hironimus agreed to sign the form and court reconvened, Gillen offered advice to the parents: "You are both going to continue to be the parents to this young man. You're going to have to learn how to deal with that in an amicable, friendly, civil manner. You're going to have to always take into consideration what's in your child's best interest. To the extent that you may differ on things, you're going to have to talk them out. That's what parents do in a civilized society. You do not take the law into your own hands."

Though Chapin and other so-called "intactivists" remained dismayed by the developments, she said Gillen had inadvertently advanced the anti-circumcision cause.

"People who never gave it a thought before are appalled and repulsed," she said.

Editorial: The parallels between Hironimus vs Nebus and Bassanio vs Shylock ("The Merchant of Venice" http://shakespeare.mit.edu/merchant/full.html) are now acute. In both cases, two enemies make a bad contract, with part of a third party's body (a pound of Antonio's flesh, C.R.N.H's foreskin) in hazard. Time passes and circumstances change, but Nebus/Shylock demands his flesh. (Nebus is not Jewish, however. Antisemitism is not part of this case, as it was in Venice.) The case comes to trial, and enter a lawyer with a brilliant defence: Hunker: http://arclaw.org/sites/default/files/hunker-hironimus-civil-rights-complaint-2015-04-13.pdf Portia: "The quality of mercy is not strained, It droppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven..." Notwithstanding, the case is lost: Ira Marcus, counsel for Nebus: "I guess they felt the handwriting was on the wall." Portia: Why then, thus it is: You must prepare your bosom for his knife. Shylock: O noble judge! O excellent young man! In Venice, Portia waited till the last second before pointing out that "But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate Unto the state of Venice." Does Thomas Hunker have a last-second reprieve for C.R.H.N.?

Earlierstory

FLORIDA: Case abandoned, mother seeks release from jail

Sun-Sentinal (AP)
May 20, 2015

Circumcision battle: Mom seeks release from jail after federal lawsuit is dismissed

By Marc Freeman
A West Boynton mother on Wednesday gave up trying to get a federal judge to stop her 4 1/2-year-old son from being circumcised as his father wishes — a battle that also led to her arrest May 14 on a state court warrant.

An attorney for Heather Hironimus, who lost similar legal challenges in two state courts, notified U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra that she voluntarily dismissed the month-old case, and would be barred from filing it again in federal court.

But at the same time, the 31-year-old mother remained behind bars, charged with interfering with the father's custody of the boy in violation of an order from Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Dana Gillen.

Hironimus — held in Broward County Jail since her arrest after nearly three months of hiding with the boy at a domestic violence shelter — is expected in Gillen's Delray Beach courtroom early Friday. The judge previously said that her get-out-of-jail ticket will be her signature of consent to her son's circumcision. Thomas Hunker, attorney for the mother, told her supporters that his mission now is to try to "Heather get out of jail and preserve her custody rights." Hunker said they quit the federal lawsuit because it appeared hopeless, in light of a hearing Monday where the judge repeatedly questioned the justification for a case already decided by state judges.

"Unfortunately, Judge Marra was not only not sympathetic, he seemed quite hostile toward our position," the attorney wrote in a message shared by circumcision opponents and posted on a Facebook page dedicated to the boy and his mom.

Hunker could not be reached for comment despite calls and an email to his office Wednesday. Previously, he has said he couldn't speak because of a gag order imposed by Gillen.

In his message, he said continuing the federal lawsuit would surely result in "an unfavorable order which could potentially hurt the cause and future efforts to establish a child's right to object to circumcision. I hope you understand and agree that under the circumstances, this was our only available option."

Ira Marcus, attorney for the boy's father, Dennis Nebus of Boca Raton, told the Sun Sentinel he was stunned to learn the case had been withdrawn. He said he gave the news to his client, who took custody of his son when Hironimus was jailed but had not yet attempted to schedule the surgery.

"I'm shocked because they were so aggressive about their position," Marcus said, referring to the mother and her attorney's numerous case pleadings and arguments in court Monday. ["Aggressive" or just thorough?]

Hironimus' sudden decision to quit sparked a wave of anger and sadness among anti-circumcision groups, called "intactivists." They have followed the debate for more than a year, raising money for the mom's legal fund and championing her efforts at local rallies and through social media.

"I am very disappointed that the attorney for the child precipitously abandoned the federal lawsuit," said Georganne Chapin, executive director of Intact America, who attended Monday's federal court hearing. "What we hope for now is that the father will have compassion for his young son, and not compound the trauma of the past few months with the trauma of a medically unnecessary surgery."

Hunker had urged Marra to protect the boy from "physical harm," brain damage or worse from an elective procedure that allegedly violates his constitutional rights.

"This is a potentially life-and-death situation," Hunker said, arguing the child doesn't respond well to general anesthesia and is prone to scarring that could further harm his genitals if he survives. He said the removal of the foreskin from the boy's penis is not "reversible" and violates his right to bodily "integrity."

Hunker, revising claims already made in state court, also said the boy's civil rights were violated because he hasn't had a psychological examination or an independent guardian to speak on his behalf in court, as the mother requested.
...

Earlier story

FLORIDA: Federal court considers restraining order

Sun-Sentinal (AP)
May 18, 2015

Battle over Florida boy's circumcision enters federal court

By Matt Sedensky
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A judge expressed skepticism Monday that a long-running court battle over a Florida boy's circumcision amounted to a constitutional issue worthy of being argued in federal court after being exhaustively litigated in state courts.

In the first hearing on the issue in federal court, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra questioned the attorney for the boy's mother, Heather Hironimus, over the legality of proceeding with the case when a state judge had already ruled.

"Aren't you really asking me to revisit and second-guess?" Marra said near the start of the 80-minute hearing in West Palm Beach.

Already a legal oddity for its subject matter, the long-running case between the boy's estranged parents over the fate of his genitals got an extra dose of drama when Hironimus fled with the child nearly three months ago, going into hiding at a domestic violence shelter while a state judge warned she risked imprisonment for defying orders and refusing to appear in court. She was arrested Thursday and remains jailed.

Though Marra made no ruling in the case, he was often incredulous as Hironimus' attorney, Thomas Hunker, contended the case could continue in federal court because it was filed on behalf of the boy, whereas the state case was simply between the parents. Hunker said the child's interests were not fully and fairly represented in state court and that the boy had the right to make his own wishes known.

"So if the mother wants to have the child's tonsils removed, you have to ask the child?" an obviously dubious Marra asked.
[No ethical doctor would remove a child's tonsils just because a parent wanted them removed.]

Hunker said because the procedure was not performed in the boy's infancy, it had now grown to become a "life-and-death situation" involving the unnecessary risk of anesthesia. Though Marra quickly dismantled Hunker's argument over the fairness of circumcising the boy at all when such a procedure would be barred as genital mutilation if he were a girl, the attorney sought to frame the case as having the ability to protect the constitutional right to bodily integrity.

"There has to be a limit to how far a parent can go to permanently alter a child's body," Hunker said.

Hironimus, 31, and the boy's father, Dennis Nebus, have been warring since her pregnancy. They were never married but share custody of their child, and in a parenting agreement filed in court, the two agreed to the boy's circumcision. The mother later changed her mind, giving way to the long legal battle. Circuit and appellate judges have sided with the father, but potential surgeons have backed out after failing to get the mother's consent and becoming the target of protesters.

The federal case, contending the boy's civil rights were being infringed upon, was filed while Hironimus was missing and her legal options evaporating.

Nebus' attorney, Ira Marcus, said Hunker had not proven any constitutional violation and that Marra had no jurisdiction to prevent the circumcision from proceeding. He said the boy remained in the care of Nebus and that the surgery was not imminently scheduled. Marcus agreed to give Marra 10 days' notice if he was proceeding with an appointment but rejected Hunker's argument that the boy had a say in the matter.

"Minor children, up until the age of majority, do not make elective medical decisions," he said. "Parents make those decisions."

The case has stirred the attention of so-called "intactivists" who reject circumcision as barbaric, and a small group of protesters gathered outside the courthouse with signs including "Free Heather" and "Keep Foreskin and State Separate." One of the advocates, Georganne Chapin, who leads the group Intact America, said the state court had "utterly disregarded the rights and wellbeing of the child."

"It is a sad day in America when a mother is jailed for trying to protect her young son from another adult who is intent on cutting off a normal, healthy part of the boy's genitals," she said.

Earlier story

FLORIDA: Emergency restraining order filed

Chase's Guardians (Palm Beach, Florida)
May 15, 2015

Temporary Restraining Order granted

Yesterday, the attorney for Heather Hironimus, The Hunker Law Group, P.A. filed her Affidavit, in support of Motions for Temporary Restraining Orders. The restraining orders will maintain her son's liberty and prevent his forced circumcision by the lower court's previous order, while the US District Court adjudicates the Civil Rights Complaint filed on behalf of Chase last week.

Heather's affidavit in support of motion for temporary restraining order against Dennis Nebus, Judge Gillen, and all sheriff's of the state of Florida includes some information that was not previously public, like the fact that Chase is prone to developing keloid scars (which means that if he is circumcised he will likely have a keloid scar on his penis)

Earlier story

FLORIDA: Mother of cut-case boy arrested

Sun-Sentinal (Palm Beach, Florida)
May 14, 2015

Mom in circumcision fight found, jailed

by Kate Jacobson
After two months in hiding, Heather Hironimus, the mother at the center of a bitter circumcision battle, was booked Thursday into Broward County Jail, records show.

A Palm Beach County judge in March signed a warrant for Hironimus' arrest for contempt of court after she failed to appear in court with the boy so a circumcision could be performed. According to Broward county records, Hironimus was booked in into the jail just after 6 p.m. Thursday. 

Dennis Nebus, of Boca Raton, testifies in a Palm Beach County court hearing. Nebus and the mother of his son are in a court battle over whether the 4-year-old should be circumcised. Nebus wants the procedure done, while the mother, Heather Hironimus, does not. 

Hironimus has been fighting Dennis Nebus, the father of her child, for years over the circumcision of their son. After the couple split, they decided on a "parenting plan" in 2012 that allowed for Nebus to circumcise the boy.

A state court judge ruled in Nebus' favor in May 2014, and in March ordered Hironimus to hand the boy over.

Hironimus and her son, now 4-1/2, did not show up in court and went into hiding.

In April, Hironimus filed a federal lawsuit against Nebus in an attempt to block the circumcision.

Also listed in the suit is Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Gillen, who made the May 2014 ruling, and Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.

KENYA: 30 boys cut by force

How is this not sexual abuse?


Daily Nation (Kenya)
April 22, 2015

Anxiety in Eldoret after NGO ‘forcibly’ circumcises 30 boys

by Copperfield Lagat
Anxiety has gripped Eldoret in Uasin Gishu after an estimated 30 children were forcibly circumcised by a non-governmental organization based in Kisumu and which has a clinic in Eldoret.

The Impact Research Development Organisation is alleged to have performed the circumcision on the school-going children last week in various parts of Eldoret, when learners came home for the April holiday.

The mood was tense Wednesday evening at Kapsoya Estate as mothers wailed uncontrollably after realising that their sons, some as young as six years old, were circumcised by the organisation without their consent.

Lucy Ekwong said she had gone to town but did not find her two sons upon arriving home in the evening.

She would later find out that they were nursing pains at a Sudanese neighbour’s house.

“I had gone to town but when I came back in the evening, my two children, aged six and eight were in my neighbour’s house.

LURED WITH SWEETS
“The young one said they were offered sweets and taken to a clinic in Langas where many boys were circumcised,” the bitter mother said.

“I was shocked but immediately took up to caring for them. I later talked to a police officer who denied knowing of such an activity.

“I am so confused because the surgery itself is not according to the requirements of the Kalenjin traditions.

“My people in the village, upon learning of that, are accusing me of doing it on my sons,” said Ms Ekwong.

Some of the children were from the South Sudan Nuer community which does not perform circumcision on their boys.

The community regards the act of circumcision as a taboo and anyone conducting it is banished.
Only two children, who were from Islamic Center, were Kalenjins while close to 30 others were those from South Sudan.

A Sudanese national, Madol Anyief said: “Our Dinka Bor community does not perform circumcision. Anyone who is circumcised is banished and disowned.

“It is said these people were going around saying the government has directed circumcision but we have later been assured that the county has no such programme,” Anyief said, adding that she did not question much because she was a foreigner and feared for her life.

According to reports corroborated by the circumcised boys, sweets were used by people who were in cars to lure them.

MORE THAN A HUNDRED
One of them said they were more than a hundred only that some were hiding in their homes.
Uasin Gishu County’s Chief Officer for Health Mr Silas Boit said the revelation came during a normal supervision at Kapsoya Health Centre on Tuesday when they met a young boy who was walking in pain.

“We asked further and we were told that there was a forceful circumcision that the NGO had conducted. The boy had a urinal retention complication due to the surgery,” Mr Boit said.
The health officer said they went round the estate and got over 30 other boys in pain in their various homes.

Some who were suspected to be developing infections were referred to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital for medication.

Mr Boit said police and the county officials managed to arrest three officers from the NGO who were booked at Kapsoya Police Post.

Mr Boit said: “We were shocked after realising that the car in which the suspects had been arrested was released and was going around collecting the boys to ferry them to hospital,” Boit said.

He added that the OCS had promised to take the suspects to court.

Meanwhile, parents have been urged to keep a close watch on their children.

FLORIDA: Injunction against 4 1/2 year old's genital cutting

WSBTV (Florida)
April 14, 2015

Woman filed federal suit to block son’s circumcision

by Jane Musgrave WEST PALM BEACH —
A Boynton Beach, Florida, woman who went into hiding with her 4 1/2-year-old son rather than abide by a judge’s order to have him circumcised has filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming a forced circumcision would violate her son’s constitutional rights.

In the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Heather Hironimus claims there is no medical justification to circumcise her son, identified as C.R.N.H., and many legal and medical reasons not to do it.

“(The) application of Florida law to impose unnecessary, elective, cosmetic circumcision upon C.R.N.H. at the age of 4 1/2 years old for no religious reason violates (the boy’s) fundamental right to privacy and bodily integrity secured by the due process clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States,” her attorney Thomas Hunker wrote.

Hunker also claims the circumcision, sought by the boy’s father, constitutes “assault, aggravated assault, battery and aggravated battery.” It would cause irreparable psychological damage and provide few health benefits, Hunker says in the suit to be heard by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra.

Heather Hironimus, 30, and her son have been in hiding since last month when Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Gillen ordered her to bring her son to court to turn him over to the boy’s father, Dennis Nebus. When she didn’t appear at the hearing, Gillen signed a warrant for her arrest.

The federal lawsuit is the latest volley Hironimus has fired in the long-running legal fight to block the circumcision.

Three months after the boy was born in 2010, Nebus, 47, of Boca Raton, filed suit to establish his parental rights. In 2012, Hironimus signed a parenting agreement, allowing Nebus to have the boy circumcised as long as he paid for it. Soon after, she said she had second thoughts about allowing her son to undergo the procedure.

She launched a court battle and one on social media seeking to persuade Gillen not to enforce the agreement. After various court hearings, Gillen in May ruled that the agreement trumped her reservations. The 4th District Court of Appeal upheld his decision without comment.

Protests by those who identify themselves as “intactivists" have been held throughout the county to support Hironimus’ efforts to spare her son from circumcision.

Earlier story

FLORIDA: Arrest ordered of mother protecting 4yo from cutting

Sun-Sentinal (Palm Beach, Florida)
March 10, 2015

Judge orders West Boynton mom's arrest in circumcision case

by Mark Freeman
Despite the threat of being jailed Tuesday, a West Boynton mother hid with her 4-year-old son in a domestic violence shelter, the latest twist in a widely reported court fight to stop the boy's planned circumcision.

But Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Dana Gillen still signed a warrant for Heather Hironimus' arrest, refusing requests from her lawyers to first consider a mental health exam of the boy and appointing an independent guardian to speak on the child's behalf in court.

"The child is scared to death of the procedure and doesn't want it," said attorney Thomas Hunker. "There have been no safeguards put in place to protect the child's psychological and emotional condition with regards to this surgery."

Attorneys for the child's father, Dennis Nebus of Boca Raton, requested the crisis shelter's name and location during a brief hearing Tuesday, so the mother could be served with a court order for Nebus to pick up his son. But Gillen said he would not order the disclosure of the shelter's name.

The mother and son "sought refuge" at the shelter on Feb. 23, when it was her regular time to have custody of the boy, Hunker said. Nebus then was attempting to make arrangements for a Broward doctor to remove the child's foreskin.

The warrant authorizes law enforcement to take Hironimus into custody, on the grounds that she failed to appear before the court Tuesday as ordered. Such warrants typically require apprehended individuals to be brought before a judge within 24 hours.

"She doesn't believe she should be incarcerated for protecting her child," Hunker said.

On Friday, Gillen declared the mom in contempt of court for violating an order enforcing a 2012 parenting plan, which makes the dad responsible for arranging the circumcision. The mom and dad did not marry either before or after the boy's birth on Oct. 31, 2010.

After Nebus testified Friday that he can't find his son, the judge ordered the mom to appear in his courtroom with the child by 2 p.m. Tuesday.

"I was hoping the mother was going to be here," Nebus' attorney May L. Cain said after learning Hironimus remained at the shelter.

"I was, too, obviously," Gillen replied.

The judge last week called it "reprehensible" for the mother to spirit away the boy.

"I will allow her to avoid incarceration or get out of jail if she signs the consent to the procedure," Gillen said Friday.

The judge found the mom had willfully violated the plan she signed when the boy was 1. The judge also said Hironimus had committed a "direct, contemptuous violation" of court orders by continuing to team with circumcision opposition groups — called "intactivists" — that have "plastered" the child's photos and name "all over the Internet."

After a state appellate court in December held up Gillen's earlier ruling enforcing the parenting plan, the judge instructed Hironimus and Nebus to "protect the child from any exploitation."

Gillen has ordered the media not to release the name or photo of the child, and the Sun Sentinel has filed a motion seeking to vacate the order. A hearing on the matter is scheduled before Gillen on Wednesday.

More than a dozen protestors stood outside the county courthouse in Delray Beach on Tuesday. Some carried signs reading, "His body his rights" and "circumcision is a sex crime."

"It's outrageous that this could actually be happening," said Jennifer Cote of Pembroke Pines, a mother of a 2-month-old son and a 4-year-old girl. "We think this is a choice [Hironimus' son] should make for himself."

Kristen Shockley, of Boynton Beach, one of Hironimus' longtime friends, said it's important to consider the boy is well "past the infancy stage." Shockley said her 9-month old and 4-year-old sons were not circumcised since there was no medical reason for it, nor any cosmetic or religious purpose.

Neither Nebus nor Hironimus is Jewish, but the dad testified last year he thinks circumcision is "just the normal thing to do" and he decided late in 2013 to press for it after noticing his son was urinating on his leg. The father says the boy has a condition called phimosis, which prevents retraction of the foreskin, but the mother has said there is no such diagnosis.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says the benefits of newborn male circumcision are lower risks of urinary tract infections; getting penile cancer; and acquiring HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Judge Gillen mentioned these benefits in court last week, and called the procedure "very, very safe."

Still, the most recent federal statistics indicate circumcision has been waning in popularity across the country.

For Jewish families concerned about following the ancient tradition of circumcisions, a group called Doctors Opposing Circumcision advocates an alternative ceremony called a Brit Shalom, "which does not cut the genitals or risk physical or psychological harm to the child."

In an emergency motion filed last week, Hunker wrote the boy "is aware of what is happening and is terrified by the procedure. He is also angry that the procedure is being forced upon him."

The attorney said the boy needs to be examined a by mental health expert so the court can "consider the child's emotions and feelings on the matter."

"This is not a situation where [the child] is a newborn; he is old enough to remember the procedure and what his body looked like before," Hunker wrote. "Removal of part of the most private part of his body could emotionally scar [the child] for the rest of his life."

Nebus has accused the mother of putting fear into the boy.

"My son has mentioned things to me that he's scared to have his penis cut off," he testified.

FLORIDA: No appearance of mother of boy threatned with spite-circumcision

Broward Palm Beach New Times (Florida)
March 6, 2015

Mother of Boy in Circumcision Case Has Vanished With Child; Judge Orders Her to Return

by Chris Joseph
(Note: Judge Jeffrey Dana Gillen has requested the media to withhold the name of the child and the names of the doctors in this case, due to the nature of this story. New Times has published these names in past stories.)

Heather Hironimus, the mother of a 4-year-old boy caught in the middle of a circumcision case, has been ordered to appear before Judge Jeffrey Dana Gillen of the 15th judicial district in Palm Beach County on Tuesday or be found in contempt.

In a hearing held Friday, Gillen heard testimony from the boy's father, Dennis Nebus, over how Hironimus has fled and vanished with their son. Nebus also asked the court to have Hironimus stop allowing anti-circumcision activists to continue using their son's name and likeness on the internet. She had been ordered to do so in the past but has disobeyed that court order.

The case revolves around the separated couple's fight over whether the child can be circumcised. The couple had previously agreed that Nebus would pay for and schedule the child's circumcision. But Hironimus has been arguing that there is no medical reason for her son to be circumcised and that the procedure could harm or even kill the boy. The practice is even more scrutinized now that the boy is no longer a newborn.

However, Nebus testified that three doctors who were supposed to perform the procedure on the boy had removed themselves from doing so after apparently receiving what he called "threatening letters" from activists calling for the father not to have the boy circumcised. Nebus claimed that he too had received death threats.

During his testimony, Nebus detailed an incident where Hironimus burst into a doctor's office where the child was being examined in order to schedule a procedure. Nebus said she "threw a tantrum," and yelled at the medical staff that she had not given consent for the boy to be examined by the doctor. Nebus said that their son, who had witnessed the outburst, was "visibly shaken." He also claimed that the boy had expressed fear over getting a circumcision. Nebus hinted on the stand that this was due to Hironimus using "scare tactics" on the boy, though he didn't make clear what those tactics might've been.

Nebus also testified that the mother had been allowing the anti-circumcision activists to use the child's likeness and name on their websites, as well as on posters and picket signs during protests outside the courthouse as well as at CityPlace.

Gillen said he expected that, although Hironimus was ordered not to allow the boy's name and likeness to be taken from her personal Facebook and used on these websites, she did anyway. "I expected this to happen," Gillen said during his ruling, "that the child's likeness would be used, making him an object of curiosity on the Internet."

More pressing, however, is that Hironimus and the child have gone missing since the last scheduled doctor's visit on February 19. Nebus testified that he visited the home of the mother to take the boy for his prearranged visiting time and found no one home. The car was also gone, and when he tried calling Hironiumus, he said the phone was turned off.

Hironimus was not present during Friday's hearing, and the judge ordered that she and the child report to court on Tuesday by 2 p.m. or face the consequences.

Gillen had ordered a gag order on Hironimus to not speak to the media at a previous hearing. The case has made headlines, has been the cause of much debate on the internet and has even caught the attention of actor Russell Crowe. Anticircumcision activists -- sometimes called "intactivists" -- have been extremely vocal about the case and have befriended Hironimus on Facebook and social media. They've also launched several websites with the boy's name.

Nebus testified that the boy's likeness had been used as early as December, when the mother allowed the groups to take a recent photo of the child with Santa Claus taken at a department store. They were also given access to the mother's Halloween photos of the child.

"It's unfortunate that due to the mother's actions, the child has been placed in this position -- the light of too much scrutiny for a little boy," Gillen said. "I blame the mother for this. She has willfully denied a court order and has provided the father with no information of their son's whereabouts. Leaving the father to wonder where his son is is reprehensible."

Gillen put a pickup order into effect for Hironimus.

"If she does not [appear with the child on Tuesday], I will sign a writ of bodily attachment."
This means if Hironimos and her son do not obey the court's order, she'll be hunted down by authorities. Gillen also said he would have her passport suspended and not allow the boy to have a passport issued.

Moreover, Gillen said that he had heard enough testimony from doctors that circumcision is safe. "I have heard testimony from doctors that there are zero cases of penile cancer in circumcised males, but there have been some cases in uncircumcised males," Gillen said. "I've also heard testimony from doctors that there are less cases of STDs in circumcised males than in uncircumcised males."

Gillen, saying he wanted to "rein in this case," also added that circumcision is "short, under local anesthesia, and, at this stage of the boy's life, very, very safe."

Gillen found Hironimus in contempt of court for allowing the use of the boy's likeness on the internet and said that Hironimus is responsible for Nebus' attorney fees. Gillen reserved ruling on how much that fee is.

Earlier story

FLORIDA: Protests as 4-year-old's cutting nears

Palm Beach News (Florida)
February 23, 2015

Protesters at Doctor's Office Hope to Stop 4-Year-Old From Being Circumcised

by Dierdra Funcheon
A 4-year-old boy named Chase has been at the center of a long court battle between his parents over whether he should be circumcised. The courts have now ruled that the circumcision be allowed to proceed, and the boy is reportedly due to be circumcised tomorrow at South Florida Pediatric Surgeons in Plantation.

Protesters, who believe that childhood circumcision is wrong because it's an invasive cosmetic surgery performed before a boy is old enough to consent, will be holding signs outside the doctor's office from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. today.

Organizer Jen Cote VanWie said they hoped to persuade Dr. Subhash Puranik not to perform the procedure. She said this tactic worked a few months ago, when a doctor in Boynton Beach had been scheduled to circumcise Chase but backed out after a protest at his office.

"We hope to convince this doctor to change his mind," she said. Even though the court had ruled that the boy's father be allowed to schedule the circumcision, the court "can't force [Puranik] into doing the surgery."

The saga began in 2010, when Dennis Nebus of Boca Raton and Heather Hironimus of Boynton Beach had a child together. They did not remain a couple but entered into a parenting agreement more than a year later. The agreement clearly stated that the father would be responsible for scheduling and paying for the boy's circumcision.

But after the mother learned more about what the procedure entailed, she objected because, court papers said, it was "not medically necessary and she did not want to have the parties' son undergo requisite general anesthesia for fear of death."

Both a local judge and then an appeals court eventually sided with Nebus. A judge ordered that Hironimus stop speaking to the media, but anticircumcision activists -- sometimes called "intactivists" -- largely took up the cause on her behalf, organizing protests and launching a website, savingchase.org, and a group, Chase's Guardians.

Jen Cote Van Wie said she became interested in the intactivist movement when she became pregnant and researched circumcision. She became an activist "when I found out that babies are dying from this."

Jonathan Friedman of Chicago designed the Saving Chase website and also does work for Attorneys for the Rights of the Child. He says he became involved in the intactivist movement because he had problems with his own circumcision.

He said that last year, Chase had a circumcision scheduled with a Boynton Beach doctor but that at the last minute, after a protest, the doctor backed out.

Friedman says that "a lot of doctor policies require consent from all guardians" and that the Boynton doctor had even asked the court if he would be legally protected from lawsuits by the mother if he performed the procedure; the judge would not guarantee it. The doctor, he says, "called me two hours into the protest and said, 'I am on your side. Unless [the father] hands me a signed and notarized consent form from the mother [I won't circumcise Chase].'"

Friedman said his group disputes the supposed health benefits of circumcision.

Earlierstory

TANZANIA: Girls cut after leaving refuge - one father arrested

Tanzania Daily News
January  19,2015

Tanzania: Police Confirm Single Arrest Over Forced FGM in Tarime

By Mugini Jacob Tarime — POLICE have arrested a man here for allegedly forcing her daughter to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) at a village in Tarime, Mara Region .

The single arrest came in the wake of shocing reports that dozens of girls who escaped the cut and camped at Termination of Female Genital Mutilation(TFGM) Masanga Centre in the critical months of November and December when FGM was widely conducted in area, are now being subjected to forced circumcision.

More than 600 most school girls refused the cut and sought shelter at the rescue centre, which operates under the Roman Catholic Church of Musoma Diocese with the support of several partners, including United Nations Population Fund(UNFPA) and Children's Dignity Forum(CDF), a nongovernmental organisation, which has of late enhanced the battle against FGM in the area.

... The girls left the centre early this month in a colourful function officiated by Minister for Labour and Employment, Ms Gaudensia Kabaka.

Tanzania Media Women's Association (TAMWA) Executive Director Ms Valerie Msoka described the report about the girl who was forcibly cut in Tarime as "shocking and humiliation of the highest order".

She called for immediate new effective measures that will help to save girls from the outdated harmful culture. FGM is illegal according to the law. "
...