September 7, 2011
Calif. legislature approves bill to prevent circumcision bans
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California’s state legislature approved a bill that would prevent the state’s municipalities from banning male circumcision.
The California Assembly approved the bill Tuesday. The bill comes on the heels of two attempts in California to place circumcision bans on the November ballot.
The bill now goes to California Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature and would take effect immediately. Brown has not taken a position on the bill, according to the Sacramento Bee.
A state Superior Court judge in California ruled in July that an anti-circumcision measure in San Francisco be stuck from the ballot because the city lacked the authority to regulate a medical procedure. Activists in Santa Monica then withdrew an identical proposal that had not yet made it to the ballot.
If passed, the San Francisco initiative would have made the practice of circumcising a minor a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or up to one year in jail, and offered no exemption for religious ritual. It would have been the first time that such a measure appeared on a ballot in a U.S. city, according to the Anti Defamation League.
