Opponents of circumcision are having a great May, it seems. Not only will a measure banning the procedure appear on the November ballot in San Francisco: now the proposed ban is headed south.
As the Chron notes, our intactivist (No, really. That’s what they like to be called) allies to the south are attempting to replicate SF’s proposed ban in Santa Monica. With luck, the ban may appear on the 2012 ballot in Santa Monica.
The nonprofit MGM (Male Genital Mutilation) Bill has been pivotal in bringing their cause to the attention of various cities since the failure of their Massachusetts initiative, they say on their site.
As Matthew Hess, president of MGM Bill, tells the Santa Monica Daily Press, “We’re not trying to stop people from getting circumcised if they want to. We just want to protect children from getting it forced on them.”
As expected, many religious organizations are fighting both bills in the name of religious freedom.
“It’s currently illegal to circumcise or draw a single drop of blood from a girl’s genitals,” Hess told the Daily Press. “This is an example where religious freedom is not absolute.”
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