Circumcision fight goes on

Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minnesota), Page 19A. Thursday, 5 December 1996.

A Minnesota attorney who wants routine circumcisions outlawed says he will continue to fight a North Dakota law that protects girls, but not boys, from having their genitals mutilated.

Zenas Baer of Hawley, Minn, said Wednesday he also plans to challenge a similar federal law. Meanwhile, other lawyers may take up the issue in their states, he said.

We're networking and trying to provide a challenge in a number of different jurisdictions, Baer said.

A law enacted by the 1995 North Dakota Legislature prohibits the mutilation of genitals in girls age 17 and younger. Baer represents four plaintiffs who are seeking to have the law declared unconstitutional.

Baer said the law amounts to gender discrimination because it does not protect baby boys from routine circumcisions, which he compares to the mutilation of female genitals.

I don't know what the distinction is, he said. That law ... is providing a benefit to girls that is not similarly there for young boys.

U.S. District Judge Patric Conmy in October dismissed Baer's challenge of the law. The plaintiffs include a mother and her infant who was circumcised last year with the father's consent but not hers.

Citation:

Circumcision fight goes on. Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minnesota). 1996-12-05: 19A.

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