Anti-circumcision group holds demonstration in Idaho Falls
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IDAHO FALLS — Four men are standing at the corner of Hitt Road and 17th Street today wearing pants with red-stained crotches.
They’re holding large signs that read, ‘Stop cutting baby penis,’ ‘I did not consent’ and ‘Intact body human rights.’
The demonstrators are part of Bloodstained Men & their friends – a group with the mission “to protect children and future generations from genital cutting.”
“Babies who bleed become men who bled,” group spokesman Jason Fairfield tells EastIdahoNews.com. “We want to raise awareness that circumcision is more harmful than people realize.”
Sixty-five percent of newborn babies born in the United States in 2010 were circumcised, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Health Statistics. The World Health Organization estimates approximately 30 percent of men worldwide are circumcised.
Bloodstained Men wants to get those numbers lower and the group argues that circumcision can actually cause more harm than good.
“More and more men are complaining about the fact they were circumcised,” Fairfield says. “We like to say that Mother Nature is not completely perfect, but if there’s one area she’s likely to be perfect in, it’s our reproductive organs.”
The demonstrators visiting Idaho Falls Tuesday are from California and Massachusetts. Two of them have been circumcised and two have not. They say their passion for this cause is what gets them to take time off of work to travel the country and spread their message.
“Folks tend to do very little research before they circumcise their child,” Fairfield says. “The (foreskin) is a functional, sensory, valuable and enjoyable body part and people are cutting it off.”
