EXCERPT: Has the time come to cut out circumcision? Pro-foreskin forces say so, and some in San Francisco say they’ve collected enough signatures to put a proposal to ban circumcision before voters. The proposal would make it a misdemeanor to perform circumcision on a male under the age of 18 within the city. Anyone who ignored the ban would face a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.
Circumcision should be outlawed because “it’s excruciatingly painful and permanently damaging surgery that’s forced on men when they’re at their weakest and most vulnerable,” a leading proponent of the ban, 59-year-old Lloyd Schofeld, told Reuters.
Since circumcision is a ritual practice for Jews and Muslims, some legal experts say such a ban might prove an unconstitutional infringement of religious freedom, Time reported. But others say religions don’t get a “free pass.”