Pediatricians Rattled by Protests at 2016 Convention in SF

A first-person report by one of the participants:

"The protests at the AAP Convention 2016 took place October 22nd-25th. I was only able to attend one day but I wanted to thank the many that traveled from around the world to be there every day. We had activists from Canada, The Netherlands, England, New York, Texas, Oregon, just to name a few.

I felt like the main reaction we were getting was being completely ignored. It was almost comical, seeing people walking by as if they were alone in a tunnel, while in reality they were passing a line of 10 protestors, with more waiting on the other side of the street. Their goal may have been to try to make us think we're useless, not even seen by them. But the ones that stopped to talk, told us otherwise. That we were the talk of the convention, EVERYONE saw us and had an opinion.

One doctor said her colleagues were afraid to go near us, because they thought we might throw eggs or blood on them! While that may have happened at events like PETA protests, that has never happened at a genital integrity event. The doctor said her response to them was "No they won't. Thy are just people like you and I, with a message to share" and she said she made a point to talk with us to share some perspective that we may be able to use to better reach them.

She started with "I totally agree with the message but not with the method" Through our talk, she said she saw one baby being cut in her training and knew she never wanted anything to do with performing them. She actively tells her patients that it's unnecessary, and she encourages the parents to save the money in a college fund instead of using it to pay for circumcision.

However, she felt that some parents just cannot be reached because it's a multi-generational issue, their fathers were cut, they are cut, and they want their sons to match. And while she agreed that's a crazy reason, she also felt that is was the main reason that parents refuse to budge and want it done regardless of the facts, and that she would rather refer them to a surgeon she knows will do a good job, rather than risk them getting it done at some terrible clinic that will botch it. She also brought up the fact children are being infected with STDs by Mohels in New York, so for that reason, she will encourage people who insist on it for religious purposes to get it done by her colleague, again to lower the child's risk of complications over seeking an untrained, herpes infected mohel.

We ended by agreeing that it is always wrong and unnecessary, and needs to be stopped by educating the public to stop asking and doctors to stop offering. And she stressed several times throughout the conversation that we ARE getting the doctors talking, just not to us. At least she was willing to talk to us, but then again, she already knows the truth. These other doctors are too arrogant to imagine they could be wrong.

We spoke with another doctor, he was from Pakistan. And he felt like it was a very important procedure to prevent UTIs, he said the majority of his intact male patients will present with a UTI and they usually circumcise to prevent them from recurring. We asked if he cuts girls that get infections too, and got a strange response. He said absolutely not, cutting girls is not done in Pakistan (?) because it's unnecessary. But they do it in Africa sometimes, because they have a lot of women born with macro clitoris and they need to have the extra skin removed. But not in Pakistan or America. He quickly walked away after expressing these thoughts. I spoke to another intactivist who spoke to a different Pakistani doctor who confirmed they absolutely do cut girls in the hospitals there quite frequently.

I noticed almost every time without fail, when a doctor would be speaking at length with intactivists, they had "international Guest" on their tag. Countless foreign doctors expressed their support, while the Americans walked around with blinders on. Several even became violet, completely unprovoked, and while walking by, would try to push one of us or knock the sign out of our hands, and continue walking away like nothing happened hoping they blend into the crowd and we don't even know who hit us. Real low blows. Our photographer & videographer JL had Dr. X, one of the authors of the AAP 2012 circumcision recommendation, try to smash his camera. Simply for standing on a public street, documenting what was happening. The doctor later had security escorts with him, I guess he had to be protected from further assaulting us and going to jail.

The AAP will continue to see us at their conventions around the country, until they do the right thing and get on board with telling the truth about circumcision. That there are no medical benefits. That it's a human rights violation equal to female genital cutting. And that risks absolutely outweigh any perceived social benefits. Cutting to match daddy is sick, not reasonable. And cutting a child for religious purposes is not an excuse either, the child is too young to consent to a blood sacrifice, and may not even grow up to believe in your religion. Your job is to preserve their rights and bodily integrity, so they can make good choices for themselves as adults."