A ban on bans makes everybody stronger, or at least free to practice male circumcision in California.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Sunday a bill that prohibits local governments from enacting bans on male circumcision, according to the Bay Area News Group.
The subject's been in the news lately, with a San Francisco man unsuccessfully attempting to put a ban on male circumcision on the local ballot there. A judge this summer ordered the ballot initiative scrapped, saying it flouted American laws on religious freedom as well as statutes that forbid local governments from involving themselves in medical procedures.
The ban on bans was introduced in the Senate in January to head off -- so to speak -- local bans like San Francisco's.
Circumcision is a religious ritual for Jews and Muslims, and had widespread popularity in the greater medical world, religious or otherwise, for generations. But near the turn of the milennium, the American Academy of Pediatrics declared that routine male circumcision is not necessary, the newspaper reported. The circumcision rate has dropped from 79 percent in 2004 to a little more 50 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
