Campaigners call for 'barbaric' male circumcision to be treated the same as female genital mutilation

'Male circumcision is driven by the same reasons as female genital mutilation: cleanliness, tradition, religion, and pseudoscience', activist group claim

Protesters called for ending male circumcision (NOCIRCMichigan/Facebook)

Campaigners are calling for “barbaric” male circumcision to be treated like the illegal practice of female genital mutilation (FGM).

Based in the US state of Michigan, anti-circumcision NoCirc group held a protest outside the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit over the weekend, calling for an end to removing the foreskin of baby boys.

The hospital has recently made headlines because it used to employ Dr Jumana Nagarwala, who has been accused of performing FGM on young girls.

NoCirc mocked a statement put out by the Henry Ford hospital following Dr Nagarwala’s arrest, which said "We would never support or condone anything related to this practice."

“Really?” the group responded. “The hospital mutilates the genitals of hundreds of baby boys every year!”

Unlike FGM, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) considers a harmful practice, circumcision is considered to be better for hygiene.

It is also thought to decrease the risk of urinary tract infections, sexually transmitted diseases and penile cancer.

NoCirc claimed 53,000 newborn boys in the state are circumcised every year.

Data by a group lobbying for a Male Genital Mutilation Bill used open source medical data to place Michigan in the highest bracket for circumcision in the US. It showed 84 per cent of newborn boys underwent the practice in 2013.

While it is commonly carried out for religious reasons, doctors disagree on the extent of its health benefits. While it can reduce the risk of HIV infection, its impact on other diseases and conditions is regarded as negligible.

“The genital integrity of both girls, boys, and intersex needs to be protected from the harm of circumcision,” said Norm Cohen, Executive Director of NoCirc.

“Male circumcision is a barbaric practice driven by the same reasons as female genital mutilation: cleanliness, tradition, religion, and pseudoscience!”

“However, the slightest cutting of girls' genitals, regardless of religious belief, is a five-year felony.”

In a statement to the Detroit Metro Times, Mr Cohen added: "Doctors and hospitals profit by perpetuating the myth that infant circumcision is health care. It is not. It is a harmful custom that removes a normal, functioning part of a child’s genitals at the request of his parents.”

The view that circumcision could be driven by profit has been echoed by doctors within Michigan.

The practice can by “highly remunerative”, according to Timothy Johnson, a University of Michigan professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

“I think the professional charge in our state is somewhere between $150-200,” he told Quartz earlier this year. “That’s real money if you can do four or five circumcisions in an hour.”