S.F. will pass circumcision ban
To the Editor:
Do not bet for one minute that the proposed ban on circumcision in San Francisco won't pass.
Given the long history of intactivist/genital integrity participation in Gay Pride and Leather Pride parades in San Francisco and now elsewhere (as in the YouTube video seen here); the very low hospital circumcision rate in the Bay Area (below 10 percent, compared to about 33 percent nationally, and even this has declined sharply over the last few years); and the organized campaign of MGMBill.org and many other groups protesting so-called "male genital mutilation," my bet is the loony-left voters of San Francisco pass this by a decent margin and it winds up in court.
This is only the beginning. More draconian legislation that would have carried 14-year penalties for both parents and mohels was given a hearing in Massachusetts this year. An article in Commentary magazine more than 10 years ago details the threat to the Jewish community of the intactivist movement.
Since then it has become much worse. And with the failure of more liberal Jewish organizations to vigorously defend the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause and their un-Jewish, absolutist, "woman's body, woman's right" position on abortion, they have opened the door for those who assert "his body, his choice" in seeking to ban brit milah.
Stephen Mendelsohn
New Britain, Conn.
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Ron Low
11/22/10 05:51 AM
7000 signatures is chicken scratch. This WILL make it to the ballot and it WILL pass.
The time to get worried about intactivism was 14 years ago when the FGM law was passed. Oh, but that only affected a Muslim tradition. bzzzzzzzzzzzzt. Too late. Better luck next time.
In the US and Israel 3% of good Jews do not circumcise. Cutting him at birth takes away HIS religious freedom to be THAT kind of good Jew.
Including a religious exemption in the ban would never pass constitutional muster. You can’t FAIL to protect someone from harm just because of his parents’ faith. Just ask a JW, LDS, Christian Scientist, Snake Handler, or Muslim.