The Don’t Ask. Don’t Sell.® developing initiative aims to stop medical solicitation of newborn circumcision by pressuring health care professionals. Intact America will create an environment and tactics that will alert medical professionals in the perinatal setting that asking parents about or outright soliciting circumcision may be met with a formal complaint or legal action. Additionally, Intact America will launch a large, nationwide media campaign to bring light to this horrid  profiteering.

Each year, an estimated 1.5 million baby boys are circumcised in American medical settings. Intact America estimates that if circumcision solicitations were to cease, 600,000 boys—and the men they will become—would be spared every year from the trauma and lifelong consequences of the procedure.

Download our report The Fraudulent Practice of Selling Male Child Genital Cutting

This initiative originated when Intact America’s 2020 study revealed that circumcision of baby boys is routinely and often aggressively pushed by physicians, nurses, and midwives—even if parents have not expressed interest in the procedure. Survey results show that new mothers are solicited eight times on average by health care professionals even though no medical society in the world, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommends surgically removing the foreskin of healthy baby boys. Our three-point plan of action is:

1. 1. 1. STOP medical professionals from making their “sales pitch” — soliciting parents to “consent” to circumcise their newborn sons.
      2. END institutional funding of the medically unnecessary surgery by state Medicaid programs and private health insurers.
      3. REPLACE “consent” forms given to expectant mothers and provide them with information about the foreskin and proper intact care.

The Intact America 2020 survey is the first time researchers have shown the direct correlation between solicitation and an increased circumcision rate. Survey results indicate that solicitation increased circumcisions by 173%. Only 45% of new mothers circumcised their sons without being asked, compared to 78% of new mothers who had been solicited. New mothers agreed to the procedure after only one or two asks. Even a “soft sell,” such as giving the mother a consent form to perform the procedure, increased circumcisions by 137%. The survey also found that 21% of mothers who agreed to allow their sons to be circumcised wished they had done more research on the topic, and 10% regretted their choice. Survey results (with a 3% margin of error) revealed numerous noteworthy facts:

• 94% of mothers were solicited to have their baby boys circumcised.
• 78% of mothers who were solicited agreed to have their sons circumcised.
• 45% of mothers who had not been solicited allowed their sons to be circumcised.
• “Soft sells,” such as being handed a consent form, increased circumcisions by 137%.
• The average number of solicitations was 8.
• Solicitation, in all forms, increased circumcisions by 173%.
• 71% of mothers said they would have asked about circumcision without prompting.
• 18% of mothers said they would not have thought to ask about circumcision.
• 21% of mothers who agreed to having their sons circumcised said that they wish they had done more research.
• 10% of mothers regretted their choice.
• Physicians were responsible for 3 out of 5 solicitations; nurses and midwives were responsible for the remainder.