In Campaign to Stop the Court-Ordered Circumcision of a 4-Year-Old, Toddlers Hold Signs Saying "Leave His Penis Alone"
"I wonder if Chase wants his penis cut? I know I wouldn't!"
On Facebook, those words are transposed over a picture of an infant boy, along with hashtags including #foreskinisnormal.
As we reported in the spring, Boynton Beach mom Heather Hironimus was ordered by the court to have her then-3-year-old child circumcised, in accord with a parenting agreement she'd signed in 2011. However, in the intervening years, Hironimus had read up on the practice and come to learn it was not medically necessary and even risky.
She went to court to fight the father's wish to have the procedure completed and was granted an emergency injunction.
Now, however, she has reportedly lost an appeal, and sympathizers are using social media to make pleas to the judge in the case and to raise awareness to her cause.
A campaign called "#SavingChase Photo & Video Crusade" encourages parents to "take pictures and/or videos of you or your children pronouncing 'Save Chase from Circumcision,' or something along those lines, on camera with the hashtag #SavingChase."
Many have complied:
There are many more.
The irony -- of people arguing that boys shouldn't be circumcised until they can consent, yet using their own toddlers to make points in social media campaigns -- was not lost on some commenters, who fired back with statements like: "I don't feel comfortable using children for political means. They can't consent much like they can't consent to genital surgery."
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