Is there an intactivist tipping point?
Published November 2, 2019
Updated June 10, 2020
Earlier this year Brendon Marotta, the producer of the anti-circumcision documentary American Circumcision, suggested that an expression of support by U.S. presidential candidate Andrew Yang was an indication that the intactivist movement had reached a "tipping point" with the expectation that support for the movement will begin "to landslide through the rest of the population." [1] What did he mean? What is a tipping point? "
Did intactivists catch doctors with the smoking gun?
Published September 21, 2019 Updated October 1, 2021 Medical professionals belong to the most highly respected professions in America, [1] Parents trust physicians to provide accurate, unbiased, sober, and scientifically valid information and advice. "Doctors are about as respected as any occupation can possibly be. If you consider monetary compensation an indicator of value, they're right at the top, and the talent and effort required to become a doctor is awe-inspiring. The
Intact America makes absurd proposal that refutes itself
August 18, 2019 Last week Intact America announced a campaign to get circumcision added to a list of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that harm a child's brain and are associated with harmful adult behaviors. [1] To support their position Intact America released a paper, "Child Genital Cutting as an Adverse Childhood Experience", [2] and created a website to promote this agenda. [3] The website and paper cite the ACE list and a study that were developed by the U.S. Center
Intact America Part 7: Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
October 13, 2018
Seeing Joe DiMaggio dining a few tables away, singer Paul Simon walked over and introduced himself. DiMaggio invited Simon to sit down, and the two immediately began to discuss the line in the song "Mrs. Robinson." The iconic baseball star was perplexed. "What I don't understand is why you ask where I've gone. I just did a Mr. Coffee commercial, I'm a spokesman for the Bowery Savings Bank and I haven't gone anywhere!"
The singer explained the line wasn't i
Intact America Part 6: One boy vs five hundred thousand girls
October 12, 2018
"We don't really have to worry so much about [female genital mutilation] in the U.S. since there's a federal law and many state laws against it, and it's not something that we carry out every day on baby girls in hospitals." - Georganne Chapin [1]
"Nationwide, 513,000 women and girls born into families who practice the tradition or who immigrated from those countries were at risk of female genital mutilation in 2012, more than double the number in 2000" - C
Intact America Part 5: A wild goose chase backfires
October 11, 2018 wild goose chase - an absurd or hopeless pursuit, as of something unobtainable Three years ago a circumcision dispute between unmarried Florida parents became an international story. When the mother, Heather Hironimus, refused to consent to a circumcision for their son Chase, the father, Dennis Nebus, sued her in court.
When their son was 14 months old, Nebus and Hironimus signed a parenting agreement which stipulated that Nebus would be responsible to sch
Intact America Part 4: We will cannibalize ourselves, rather than focus on the real enemy
Published October 10, 2018
Revised March 24, 2019 Outside the 2016 AAP Conference in San Francisco, our Circumcision Choice crew drew a variety of reactions from the intactivist side. Although many of them were confrontational, we found one older woman to be quite cordial. She took several photos and then politely asked us a few questions. We soon recognized her as none other than Georganne Chapin, the executive director of Intact America. A resident of New York state, Chapin
Intact America Part 3: History - the pressure was both inappropriate and indefensible
October 9, 2018 When Dean Pisani and his wife were expecting a baby, the couple decided that if they had a boy, they wouldn't circumcise him. However at a doctor appointment, the ob-gyn pressured them to change their minds. And when they remained firm, she berated them. Then 18 months later, they had a similar negative experience with another doctor who was "offensive." [1] "The pressure from doctors was both inappropriate and indefensible," he said. [2]
These experiences s
Intact America Part 2: They're unreliable because they lie
Published October 8, 2018 Revised August 13, 2021
Intact America brazenly lies and distorts circumcision studies and statements from medical authorities. Today we present four such examples. Intact America and its leaders falsely claim that circumcision causes more than 100 deaths in the U.S. each year that a study shows that circumcision contributes to erectile dysfunction that the AAP admits that circumcision complications were not systematically studied that a member of t
Intact America
October 7, 2018
"Sometimes it seems that the louder someone claims sainthood, the bigger the horns they are hiding." [1] An Allure magazine advice columnist recently explained that an uncircumcised penis is normal and natural, and a reader shouldn't shame her new partner over it. [2] One would think that circumcision opponents would love that message. But when linking to the article on its Facebook page, Intact America complained - ironically - that the article shames men,
