Move Follows Near Death of NICU Newborn After Circumcision
‘Babies in neonatal intensive care units are, by definition, in fragile health and need to be treated with special caution, compassion, and care—and not be subjected to unnecessary surgery’
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(New York)—June 13, 2025…Outraged by a baby boy’s near death following his circumcision in a hospital neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), Intact America has launched a nationwide petition to end NICU circumcisions now. The petition, with more than 1,000 signatures at the time of this release, is gaining traction rapidly and will be delivered to the heads of medical societies and oversight agencies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Hospital Association, New York Medicaid, NYS Nurses Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, the Greater New York Hospital Association, as well as at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where the circumcision took place.
“Circumcision comes with many risks, including bleeding, infection and even death, says Georganne Chapin, founding executive director of Intact America, the nonprofit that is changing the way Americans think about circumcision. “For this reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics states that circumcisions should be performed only on babies who are medically stable. By definition, any baby in intensive care does not meet this criterion.”
The incident that sparked the petition involves Cole Groth, born March 31 with congenital heart disease at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in New York City. After a stent was placed in his heart, Cole was hospitalized in the cardiac NICU for two weeks. Although his parents knew he would need to undergo additional heart surgeries, Cole was scheduled for discharge on April 16.
However, according to the boy’s father Tim Groth, at 10 pm on April 14, a NICU nurse called to ask him if the hospital should proceed with the boy’s circumcision. Groth said yes. At 11 pm, a nurse practitioner pried away and cut off the baby’s normal, healthy foreskin. The baby began to bleed shortly afterward.
Cole hemorrhaged through the night, coming close to death. He suffered severe damage to his kidneys, liver, and neurological system; sections of his intestines became necrotic and had to be surgically removed. As of mid-June, two months after his circumcision, Cole remains in the NICU, and his parents have been told that he requires a heart transplant to save his life.
“Most American doctors and hospitals expect parents to agree to circumcision,” says Chapin. “They typically don’t warn them that the surgery is completely unnecessary. Complications are glossed over if they’re mentioned at all.” Cole’s father has said he was not told of any risks of circumcision.
Chapin adds that intactivists (activists opposed to circumcision) maintain that, because “routine” circumcision is non-therapeutic, neither addressing a pathology nor improving a child’s health, all baby boys should be kept intact (e.g., uncircumcised). Intact America’s current petition specifically demands an end to NICU circumcisions because “we believe people understand that a baby in a neonatal intensive care unit is, by definition, in fragile health and needs to be treated with special caution, compassion, and care,” Chapin says.
For a full list of Intact America’s demands and organizations that will receive the petition, visit https://www.change.org/p/end-nicu-circumcisions-now
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