33% in 2009. Wow!!

In 2008, when Orren was born, the circumcision rate for the US was just over 50%. In the state of GA, where he was born, it was roughly 60%. This didn't influence our decision at all to leave Orren intact. We would have done that even if every other family in the entire US had their sons circ'd. It's a human rights thing, you know. It just makes no sense to chop off a healthy part of the anatomy of a non-consenting person. Babies are people, after all. We figure we wouldn't want anyone to perform an irreversible cosmetic procedure on us without our consent, and the people in our lives have granted us that courtesy, fortunately for us (Children in some other parts of the world are not that lucky, boys or girls!), so our baby boy deserves the same regard. His body, his choice.

Funny enough, cloth diapering has given us a lot of chances to discuss the circ issue with people, because the first question parents considering cloth diapering ask us, in at least 50% of cases, is "Well, how did you protect the cloth diapers from the vaseline they put on the baby's circumcision?" which gives us a chance to talk about the reasons why we left Orren intact, and surprisingly, to clear up misconceptions. ("Isn't it hard to care for if you don't circ?" "Aren't there a lot of infections?" "Don't most who are left intact develop problems from it later in life?" NO on all counts!) Of course, this doesn't tell anyone how to protect cloth diapers from whatever gunk they put on the baby after they lop off a piece of him, but you wouldn't believe how many parents think that circumcision is requisite to leaving the hospital, and all little boys just have it done by default. At least we have the opportunity to plant the seed of curiosity in the minds of some parents, and let them know that circumcision is not even slightly medically necessary, and not a decision to be taken lightly. It is irreversible, and permanently takes away the right of that person (because babies are people!) to choose for himself. Legitimately, how can someone assume they have the right to make that decision for another person? I can't do that. Thak can't do that. What we can do is exactly what we did, and let our son keep the perfectly functional body he was born with, and the freedom to alter it when he's old enough to make that choice for himself, should he choose to do so.

We are definitely NOT the only parents who are speaking out about this issue. Many are. This trend toward "intactivism" is just another popular component of alternative parenting, and goes right along with out-of-hospital births, cloth diapering, alternative vaccination schedules, breastfeeding, baby wearing, and homegrown organic veggies.

While many may dismiss this as just another fad, a flash in the pan type of thing, now nobody can deny that it's making a difference. At the World AIDS Conference in Vienna this past month, the US's Center for Disease Control announced that the circumcision rate for the entire US has fallen to 33% in 2009. 33%!!!!!! That is a drastic drop. The activist group Intact America estimates that over a million little boys were spared thanks to the decrease in circ between 2008 and 2009. How amazing is that? A million people who wouldn't have gotten the chance before, got to keep the bodies they were born with so they can make their own decisions on it when they're old enough to do that.

Parents, we've got to keep talking about this issue when it comes up in conversation. It's not gross or dirty to talk about. It is a human rights issue, and people are listening. Let's make the US circumcision rate 0% by 2012!! We're the only country in the industrialized world that has an infant circumcision rate above 10%, and that needs to change. It CAN change.

Doctors, midwives, and anyone else who takes care of newborn babies and their moms, you MUST talk about this with your patients also. Our midwives wrote in the literature we were given at birth class that circumcision is unnecessary, and that deciding to make that decision for your son is a very serious thing. I'll bet that just by putting that out there, they've spared hundreds, if not thousands, of little boys over the years. If everyone who delivers prenatal care would just put it out there that there is no medical indication for routine infant circumcision, the rates would fall even more drastically than they already have.


33% in 2009. Hell yeah to 67% of America, for making a smart choice. To use the outdated argument of the pro-circ lobby, "Don't let your son be the odd one out in the locker room!"..... Leave him intact!!