US Male Circumcision Losing its Place as a 'Given' Amid Changing Attitudes and Population

The rate of circumcisions for boys born in US hospitals declined by 10 percent across a 32-year period, according to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The data, collected between 1979 and 2010, show an overall drop in male circumcisions at hospitals from 64.5 percent to 58.3 percent - peaking in 1981 when 65 percent of baby boys were circumcised and falling to its lowest in 2007 at 55 percent.

Because the data does not account for the ritual circumcisions which take place outside of hospitals or those done following a a newborn's discharge from its birth hospital, the CDC says the data should not be used as an estimate for prevalence of all male circumcision in the US.

However, the decline in newborn hospital circumcision is being attributed to changing attitudes toward the practice, along with a a change in the country's immigrant population, fluctuating medical guidelines and medical insurers increasingly dropping the procedure from coverage.

Rates of circumcision in the US have fallen most dramatically in the West, where by 2010 about 40 percent were circumcised, compared to about 65 percent in 1980. Medicaid has stopped funding the procedure in 18 states, according to Bloomberg News, many of which are in the West, including Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington.

While it is not as common in Europe and Asia, the removal of the foreskin of the penis is common for US males. Religious laws of Judaism and Islam also prescribe male circumcision and the practice is common in Israel as well as in Muslim countries.

"I've been in practice for over 40 years and there wasn't any question about whether to circumcise in the 'good old days' because parents were worried about what might happen in the locker room in middle school or high school," Thomas McInerny, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told Bloomberg News."But circumcision is less frequent in Europe and Asia, so in time as more immigration has occurred, there are more uncircumcised floating around in locker rooms, so you're not going to get an embarrassing situation."

McInerny added that the days when doctors said "do this" and the patients didn't question them are over.

"The overall modest rate of decline reflects that parents are more thoughtful about circumcision now than they were a decade or two ago when circumcision was a given," McInerny said, according to NPR.

There is a strong opposition movement against circumcision, with those backing it contending that the practice is cruel and unnecessary.

"It's a brutal and unnecessary procedure to inflict on a baby that can't consent," Georganne Chapin, the executive director of the anti-circumcision advocacy group Intact America, told Bloomberg News."The biggest reason people have moved from circumcising their children, moving toward leaving their children as they're born, is they've realized circumcision isn't necessary and it's painful."