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When They Ask If You’ll Circumcise Your Baby Boy, What Will You Say?

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Blog, Press Releases
September 13, 2017

CircumcisionDebate.org, a New Website, Now Makes It Easier for Parents to Answer That Question

TARRYTOWN, NY—SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

The Internet has made it easier for expectant parents to research everything about having a baby, from choosing a stroller to buying the right diapers. But it hasn’t been easy for parents to find reliable information on a question that invariably arises: whether or not to circumcise their son?

Now, a website called CircumcisionDebate.org can give parents, as well as anyone else interested in knowing more about the surgery, an overview from different viewpoints on the topic. Consumer-friendly and easy-to-use, this new online reference includes a parents’ guide and advice on how to talk to your doctor, as well as possible benefits, harms, and risks from circumcision.

“The average person doesn’t know where to begin to research circumcision information. CircumcisionDebate.org provides a great overview, in everyday language, so the public can understand what the debate is about,” explains Georganne Chapin, executive director of Intact America, the site’s sponsor and the nation’s largest organization advocating to keep baby boys intact (not circumcised).

Even though Intact America takes a side in the debate, it has created an entry-level website where anyone can feel comfortable exploring the subject. “Doctors have told us they wished they could refer parents to a website that acknowledges that circumcision is a difficult decision,” Ms. Chapin says. “CircumcisionDebate.org recognizes that by presenting different perspectives on the debate.”

What a visitor will find:

  • An overview of diverse viewpoints from people who are uncertain about, against, and in favor of circumcision;
  • A history of the practice, from prehistoric times to the present;
  • Discussion of possible benefits of circumcision, as well as harms and risks;
  • An overview of the foreskin’s function;
  • Links to sources for further information.

Intact America is in the process of obtaining Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode) certification for CircumcisionDebate.org. Certification is awarded to health websites that are deemed to be authoritative and reliable.

Responding to the Public’s Need for Information

Intact America decided to launch CircumcisionDebate.org after examining the analytics for its own website, Intactamerica.org. “We found that more than 30,000 unique visitors a month were landing on our ‘Circumcision Decision’ page,” explains Ms. Chapin. “That page lists 10 reasons not to circumcise baby boys. However, Intact America realized that presenting one side was not necessarily enough for parents struggling with opposing viewpoints from doctors, family members and friends.

“People google circumcision when they want to begin thinking about the issue, but the information they find is either overwhelming, incomplete, or one-sided,” Ms. Chapin says. “We recognized a need to provide basic information so visitors can gain a sense of the entire picture.”

She adds that the website is also useful for journalists and students who want to understand the subject, as well as doctors and nurses who would like to refer patients to an authoritative source on circumcision. In addition, CircumcisionDebate.org supports parents who leave their sons intact by including advice on how to talk to doctors, friends, and relatives about their decision. It’s also a great primer for men—whether intact or circumcised—who want to learn more about their bodies.

Ms. Chapin points out that the need for a website such as CIrcumcisionDebate.org shows that America is approaching a tipping point in how we think about the subject. “A decade ago, the only people talking about circumcision were intactivists. Now it’s become more mainstream, as evidenced by a stream of articles about it in the media,” she says. “But it’s still a difficult conversation for many people. We hope that by providing a safe and informative website, we can encourage more people to engage in the debate.”

About Intact America

Intact America is the largest national advocacy group working to end involuntary circumcision in America, and to ensure a healthy sexual future for all people. Intact America is based in Tarrytown, New York. For more information, visit Intact America at http://www.intactamerica.org, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Author

  • Jeannie Ashford is a writer, editor, public relations professional, and communications specialist who has supported Intact America for more than a decade. She received a BA in English Honors at Queens College, City University of New York, and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University.

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Intact America operates as a not-for-profit organization based in Tarrytown, NY that is tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. EIN: 81-2887457.

(914) 400 1915

PO Box 8516 Tarrytown, NY, 10591

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Marilyn

Marilyn Fayre Milos, multiple award winner for her humanitarian work to end routine infant circumcision in the United States and advocating for the rights of infants and children to genital autonomy, has written a warm and compelling memoir of her path to becoming “the founding mother of the intactivist movement.” Needing to support her family as a single mother in the early sixties, Milos taught banjo—having learned to play from Jerry Garcia (later of The Grateful Dead)—and worked as an assistant to comedian and social critic Lenny Bruce, typing out the content of his shows and transcribing court proceedings of his trials for obscenity. After Lenny’s death, she found her voice as an activist as part of the counterculture revolution, living in Haight Ashbury in San Francisco during the 1967 Summer of Love, and honed her organizational skills by creating an alternative education open classroom (still operating) in Marin County. 

After witnessing the pain and trauma of the circumcision of a newborn baby boy when she was a nursing student at Marin College, Milos learned everything she could about why infants were subjected to such brutal surgery. The more she read and discovered, the more convinced she became that circumcision had no medical benefits. As a nurse on the obstetrical unit at Marin General Hospital, she committed to making sure parents understood what circumcision entailed before signing a consent form. Considered an agitator and forced to resign in 1985, she co-founded NOCIRC (National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers) and began organizing international symposia on circumcision, genital autonomy, and human rights. Milos edited and published the proceedings from the above-mentioned symposia and has written numerous articles in her quest to end circumcision and protect children’s bodily integrity. She currently serves on the board of directors of Intact America.

Georganne

Georganne Chapin is a healthcare expert, attorney, social justice advocate, and founding executive director of Intact America, the nation’s most influential organization opposing the U.S. medical industry’s penchant for surgically altering the genitals of male children (“circumcision”). Under her leadership, Intact America has definitively documented tactics used by U.S. doctors and healthcare facilities to pathologize the male foreskin, pressure parents into circumcising their sons, and forcibly retract the foreskins of intact boys, creating potentially lifelong, iatrogenic harm. 

Chapin holds a BA in Anthropology from Barnard College, and a Master’s degree in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University. For 25 years, she served as president and chief executive officer of Hudson Health Plan, a nonprofit Medicaid insurer in New York’s Hudson Valley. Mid-career, she enrolled in an evening law program, where she explored the legal and ethical issues underlying routine male circumcision, a subject that had interested her since witnessing the aftermath of the surgery conducted on her younger brother. She received her Juris Doctor degree from Pace University School of Law in 2003, and was subsequently admitted to the New York Bar. As an adjunct professor, she taught Bioethics and Medicaid and Disability Law at Pace, and Bioethics in Dominican College’s doctoral program for advanced practice nurses.

In 2004, Chapin founded the nonprofit Hudson Center for Health Equity and Quality, a company that designs software and provides consulting services designed to reduce administrative complexities, streamline and integrate data collection and reporting, and enhance access to care for those in need. In 2008, she co-founded Intact America.

Chapin has published many articles and op-ed essays, and has been interviewed on local, national and international television, radio and podcasts about ways the U.S. healthcare system prioritizes profits over people’s basic needs. She cites routine (nontherapeutic) infant circumcision as a prime example of a practice that wastes money and harms boys and the men they will become. This Penis Business: A Memoir is her first book.