Circumcision funding cutbacks stoke angry debate

(CBS/AP) With cash-strapped states looking for ways to cut costs, circumcision is on the chopping block. Eighteen states have decided to cut funds for the procedure.

For years, lawmakers in Colorado considered doing away with funding for circumcisions under Medicaid - a move that would save the state $186,500 a year. Now facing a budget shortfall estimated to be $1 billion, lawmakers finally approved the change, which takes effect July 1.

"We were just looking at virtually every option and trying to decide what was absolutely urgent now," said Republican Sen. Kent Lambert. "I think 99 percent of it was completely economic."

The matter of circumcisions has also gotten contentious in California, where San Francisco will be the first city to hold a public vote in November on whether to ban the practice.

Jewish and Muslim families are challenging that proposal in court, claiming it violates their religious freedom. Supporters of the proposed ban say male circumcision is a form of genital mutilation.

Matthew Hess, the president of the group behind the San Francisco's "Male Genital Mutilation Bill," applauded Colorado's move and said he hopes it will lead to a drop in the circumcision rate.

"That's a good thing, because paying someone to amputate a healthy functional body part from an unconsenting minor is not just a waste of taxpayer money - it's also a violation of human rights," he said.

South Carolina is another cash-strapped state to eliminate Medicaid payments for circumcisions. The change, which went into effect in February, was expected to save the state about $114,800 a year. States that also no longer fund circumcisions through Medicaid include Arizona, California, Florida, Maine and Louisiana.

Scott Levin, the regional director of the Mountain States office of the Anti-Defamation League, said Jews are unlikely to be affected by the defunding of Medicaid payments for circumcisions. For them, the procedure is not performed by a doctor, but a mohel - a specialist trained in Jewish ritual circumcision.

Levin said his group is more concerned about places like San Francisco that are trying to ban the procedure because Jewish people see the ritual as sacred.

The World Health Organization reported that circumcisions are one of the most common procedures performed on newborn males in the U.S., but the practice is not as common in the rest of the world. About 75 percent of baby boys in the U.S. are circumcised, compared to 30 percent elsewhere, the organization said.

Whether circumcision is medically necessary is a matter of hot debate.

"It's really a pretty inexpensive procedure to perform, and so it's just a little penny-wise and dollar-poor," said Democratic Sen. Irene Aguilar, a primary care doctor at Denver Health.

She said circumcisions help prevent urinary tract infection and penile cancer and lower the rates of cervical cancer for men's sexual partners. She said she worried that doing away with funding for circumcisions would be discriminatory for Jewish and Muslim people on Medicaid.

What do you think? Should states be cutting back on circumcision funding?