October 12, 2022
On Tuesday Intact America posted a tweet that began with a warning: "Don't be misled." Ironically the entire tweet is misleading. Intact American committed two cherry-picking fallacies and used a butchered, outdated quote.
Intact America stated, "No medical society recommends routine #circumcision, including the #AmerAcadPeds. Keep baby boys intact." This statement is a misleading cherry-picking of the American Academy of Pediatrics's actual position. The AAP policy statement clearly supports parental choice:
Although health benefits are not great enough to recommend routine circumcision for all male newborns, the benefits of circumcision are sufficient to justify access to this procedure for families choosing it and to warrant third-party payment for circumcision of male newborns. It is important that clinicians routinely inform parents of the health benefits and risks of male newborn circumcision in an unbiased and accurate manner. [2]
The AAP position is by no means an outlier. The American Medical Association, the American Urological Association, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, The Canadian Paediatric Society, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, and the World Health Organization all agree with the AAP that parents have a right to choose circumcision for their infant sons.
Not satisfied with distorting the AAP's position, Intact America attempted to support its assertion by producing an AAP quote: "... existing scientific evidence is not sufficient to recommend routine circumcision." In this case, the quote, which appears to be neutral toward the circumcision decision, is not only a second example of cherry-picking, but is from an outdated 1999 AAP policy statement. [3] The most recent AAP circumcision policy statement, published in 2012 and quoted above, states that the benefits outweigh the risks, and the benefits justify insurance coverage. [2]
Intact America's deceit should not be surprising to followers of this website. We have meticulously documented the dishonesty of the largest anti-circumcision organization in the United States. Apparently intactivists feel compelled to use such brazen dishonesty - not only distorting the scientific evidence, but as in this case distorting the opinions of others. They have no choice - because the truth supports parental choice.
INTACT AMERICA SERIES
Part 9: Intact America cherry-picks old AAP statement
[1] Intact America tweet; October 11, 2022
[2] Susan Blank et. al; "Male Circumcision - Task Force on Circumcision Technical Report"; Pediatrics; September 2012.
[3] 1999 AAP Policy Statement