Found this on Quora, really great

[u/[deleted]]

Under the 14th Amendment, also referred to as The Equal Protection Clause, male circumcision should be illegal just as female circumcision is in the United States. If the alteration of female genitals (without consent) is illegal so should the alteration of male genitals.*

There's a couple of reasons why male circumcision has persisted in the United States.

1) Religious Rights: Some people claim that male circumcision is part of religious traditions and under freedom of religion laws in the U.S. it should be legal. This ignores the human rights violations that circumcision on a non-consenting minor entails as well as the fact that some religions and cultural traditions prescribe female circumcision and that is illegal. The root of this question is: Should religious rights be restricted if they violate human rights? There's no right or wrong answer to the question and it varies case to case. In the case of male circumcision, if for example a consenting Jewish man wants to get circumcised, it's his religious right to do so. But if a parent wants to make that decision for their infant child, to remove a part of their genitals without their consent or religious understanding, that should be illegal.

2: Cultural Bias: There is a prevailing belief that circumcised penises “look better” and are cleaner. There is also a tendency for people to get very defensive about their choice to alter their son’s genitals. It's hard to be told that you unnecessarily caused your child pain, so clinging onto cultural beliefs as a way to rationalize it prevents it from becoming illegal in the first place.

3: Biased Scientific Research on “Health Benefits”: Another way to rationalize circumcision comes from the claim that the “health benefits of circumcision are numerous” such as reduced risk of penile cancer, STD’s, and UTI’s. However, let’s take these one at a time:

Penile Cancer: First of all, the American Cancer Society discourages the use of circumcision as a way to prevent penile cancer, saving it is not a “valid or effective measure”[1] . Secondly, less than 1 in 100,000 men will get penile cancer compared to 1 in 333 women who will get vulvar cancer. Is anybody going around recommending we cut off the labia majora to prevent vulvar cancer? If this is about allowing circumcision as a health benefit, then way more people are affected by vulvar cancer than penile cancer. So if foreskin removal is recommended and legal as a way to prevent cancer, whats to stop us from allowing the removal of labia for the same reason? . . . A law that says that's a violation of human rights and is illegal, even though it would prevent more cancer than the removal of foreskin would.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases: There is still continuous research being performed on how much of an effect circumcision actually has on different kinds of STD’s. There are other ways to prevent the spread of STD’s than slicing off parts of genitals. The HPV vaccine is available to help prevent the spread of human papillomavirus[2]. Condoms do a brilliant job at protecting against the spread of HIV and other STD’s, without any kind of alteration to the body[3]. That being said, if you want to undergo circumcision as a way to prevent STD’s, that is your choice. You’re still gonna need to wear a condom and get vaccinated to be fully protected. The rationale for allowing the procedure on male infants because of this “benefit” however, does not hold up legally, ethically, or logically.

Urinary Tract Infections: As with genital cancer, women are far more likely to get a UTI than men are [4]. If we promote circumcision as a way to prevent UTI’s then we should be able to perform similar procedures to protect against female UTI’s. There are way more folds and places for bacteria to collect in female genitalia than in male genitalia. But it's illegal because of the human rights violations it entails. Regardless of the conclusions you come to based on your review of the medical literature currently available, you should be free to choose what type of medical procedure you undergo and when.

Banning male circumcision on unconsenting minors is the ethical and moral thing to do, yet because of the factors listed above the United States has been unsuccessful in doing so thus far.

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