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[[Ryan McAllister]], PhD, is a parent, a biophysicist, an Assistant Professor of Physics and Oncology at Georgetown University, and also a volunteer who supports parents and families. Over the last 10 years he has been studying the medicalization of childbirth in U.S. hospitals.
Today, most Americans think of circumcision as natural procedure for male babies. Neonatal circumcision is the most common operation carried out in the U.S. today. Nationally, rates are as high as 60%, down from a peak of 75% in the 1970s. But when compared to the rest of the English speaking world, America is unique. Great Britain, Canada and Australia have current rates of male circumcision at about 15%, whereas New Zealand is lower than 5%. In the US, the rate differs by regionally, with high rates of circumcision in the white South, but low circumcision rates among babies of Hispanic origin. Most of the rest of the Western world has retained the abhorrence of male circumcision that has existed in Europe since the time of the ancient Greeks . (and as noted in the last post, some in In 18th century England feared Jewish emancipation meant universal circumcision!). What happened in the US that made the procedure so popular?
There are a number of reasons that brought circumcision to prominence in America in the early 20th century.