According to a recent report by the CDC, the rate of circumcisions for boys born in US hospitals declined by 10% over a 32-year period.
Between 1979 and 2010, there was an overall drop in male circumcisions at hospitals from 64.5% to 58.3%. The year with the largest number of circumcisions was 1981 when 65% of baby boys were circumcised, and fell to its lowest in 2007 at 55%.
The data is skewed a bit because it leaves out circumcisions that take place outside of hospitals, and those done following a newborn’s discharge from its birth hospital.
While the actual percentage may be affected, the decline in newborn hospital circumcision is real. The authors of the study attribute several factors to this decline:
- changing attitudes toward the practice, along with,
- a change in the country’s immigrant population,
- fluctuating medical guidelines and
- medical insurers increasingly dropping the procedure from coverage.
Demographically, the rates of circumcision in the US decreased most radically in the West, where by 2010 about 40% were circumcised, compared to about 65% in 1980. Also, Medicaid has stopped funding the procedure in a total of 18 states, according to Bloomberg News. A lot of these are in the West, and include Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington.
Circumcision is a common practice for US males, but not necessarily so for Europe and Asia. The practice is also common in Israel as well as in Muslim countries, and religious laws of Judaism and Islam also prescribe male circumcision.
It wasn’t so long ago that “there wasn’t any question about whether to circumcise in the ‘good old days’ because parents were worried about what might happen in the locker room in middle school or high school,” Thomas McInerny, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told Bloomberg News.
“But circumcision is less frequent in Europe and Asia, so in time as more immigration has occurred, there are more uncircumcised floating around in locker rooms, so you’re not going to get an embarrassing situation.”
McInerny added that the days when doctors said “do this” and the patients didn’t question them are over.
“The overall modest rate of decline reflects that parents are more thoughtful about circumcision now than they were a decade or two ago when circumcision was a given,” McInerny said.
There is a strong movement against circumcision, contending that the practice is cruel and unnecessary.
“It’s a brutal and unnecessary procedure to inflict on a baby that can’t consent,” Georganne Chapin, the executive director of the anti-circumcision advocacy group Intact America, told Bloomberg News. In his view, “The biggest reason people have moved from circumcising their children, moving toward leaving their children as they’re born, is they’ve realized circumcision isn’t necessary and it’s painful.”
Whether or not to circumcise your newborn son is a personal choice. If you have questions concerning circumcision, please feel free to contact All About Women. We are always happy to answer your questions!
