UK considers calling circumcision "child abuse." Let's look at the facts. ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Sunday, January 11, 2026

UK considers calling circumcision "child abuse." Let's look at the facts.

The Guardian reports:

Circumcision is to be classed as a potential form of child abuse under new guidance for prosecutors, amid concerns from judges and coroners about deaths and serious harms caused by the procedure.

A draft document by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on “honour-based abuse, forced marriages, and harmful practices”, classes circumcision as a potential crime alongside breast flattening, virginity testing, hymenoplasty and exorcisms.

Wow, that's some company.

And what evidence do they bring to say that circumcisions are horrible?

According to the Office for National Statistics, since 2001 there have been seven deaths of boys under 18 where circumcision was a factor.

Seven deaths in 25 years is seven deaths too many. But without knowing the denominator, or comparing it to other procedures, how can we know how dangerous the practice really is?

We cannot, which is why The Guardian doesn't bother to ask basic question.

Like how many total circumcisions have been done in the UK in the same 25 years?

How does the death rate compare with that of other largely optional procedures that are regarded as generally safe?

Luckily, we have the answers to both.

In the UK, there are about 30,000 non-therapeutic circumcisions, which means over the 25 years, there was a rough fatality rate of about 1 in 100,000+ procedures.

Let's compare to tonsillectomies. In England, in hospitals, the mortality rate for tonsillectomies for children between 2008-2019 was 1 in 27,000, or roughly four times the death rate of circumcisions.

Not only that, but 7 out of 8 pediatric tonsillectomies were not medically necessary.

Did anyone call tonsillectomies "child abuse"? Of course not. They did what one would expect - the doctors studied the information and are now a lot more careful about the circumstances for when to recommend the procedure, and they learn how to do it safer.

Certainly circumcisions should be done by professionals, in an antiseptic environment, and ideally with easy access to medical personnel if there is a problem. That is what a responsible report would say. But a blanket labeling of the procedure as potential child abuse is not a sober description of facts, but a bigoted reaction - whether antisemitic, anti-Islamic or both. if some groups routinely do the procedure in unsafe circumstances, call that out, not the entire procedure.

The same people who claim to care so much about child abuse and bodily autonomy don't say a word about the number of children and babies who get infections from ear piercing (and it is not a small number, although rarely fatal.)

Bigotry is no less ugly when it masquerades behind caring about children. Arguably, it is worse.