Circumcision decision to confront San Francisco voters, will procedure become misdemeanor?

(CBS/AP) SAN FRANCISCO - Yes, it is a sensitive subject that will be weighed by San Francisco voters in November: Should circumcision of males under age 18 be made illegal?

City elections officials confirmed Wednesday that an initiative to ban the procedure has received enough signatures to appear on the ballot. The practice would become a misdemeanor.

Supporters of the ban say male circumcision is a form of genital mutilation that should not be forced on a young child.

Opponents say such claims are alarmingly misleading, and call the proposal a clear violation of constitutionally protected religious freedoms.

The initiative's backers say its progress is the biggest success story to date in a decades-old nationwide movement to outlaw circumcision of male infants in the United States. A similar effort in Massachusetts last year failed to get as far.