10:00 am to 3:00 pm
DeVos Children’s Hospital
100 Michigan St NE
Grand Rapids MI 49503
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 12th, 2015
Contact:
Norm Cohen, Director, NOCIRC of Michigan
Phone: (248) 642-5703
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.NOCIRCofMI.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/467478290068893/
Protest against Circumcision at DeVos Children’s Hospital
To protest the genital cutting of children, NOCIRC of Michigan and the national group, Bloodstained Men and Their Friends, will be holding a peaceful protest against circumcision outside of DeVos Children’s Hospital. The protest begins at 10 am on Friday, May 15th on Michigan St NE. Men, women and children will march to demand professional integrity from physicians and bodily integrity for all children.
Street protesters, some with crotches stained with simulated blood to symbolize the damage and trauma from genital cutting, will demonstrate to remind Grand Rapids physicians and hospitals of their duty to protect the rights of all children in their care.
“Circumcision is as harmful as it is unnecessary,” says Robert Van Howe MD, Program Director of the Department of Pediatrics at the Central Michigan University College of Medicine. “Leave your son alone. He will thank you later.”
“Cutting off normal tissue is not a legitimate form of disease prevention,” says Norm Cohen, state director of NOCIRC of Michigan. “Cutting off any other normal part of the body would simply be considered crazy. Circumcision is the only surgery performed on children without a diagnosis. It violates their right to bodily integrity.”
Michigan has one of the highest rates of non-religious circumcision in the world. In Michigan, 83% of newborn boys are circumcised (over 48,000 annually) at a cost exceeding $10 million per year. The state of Michigan spends over $3 million a year of taxpayers’ money providing 19,000 of these elective surgeries through Medicaid. Meanwhile in California, the circumcision rate has fallen to 23%.
“We are informing and inspiring parents and health care providers to say no to circumcision and yes to normal and natural genitals,” says Cohen.
Polls indicate that most parents decide to circumcise their sons for reasons not related to health care, but physicians profit from promoting it and get insurance companies to pay for it.
More information on the May 15th protest is available on the NOCIRC of Michigan event page at https://www.facebook.com/events/467478290068893/. A second protest is being held in Ann Arbor on Saturday, May 16th.
The state chapter of the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC) educates parents and health care providers in Michigan about routine infant circumcision. NOCIRC is internationally recognized as the center of expertise on circumcision. It is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization of health care professionals and children’s health activists.
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