Thaindian News

California, Oct 3 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Attempts by an advocacy group in California to outlaw male circumcision has failed after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a unique bill to law on Sunday. The new law comes into force instantly and it prohibits any local government level in the state including cities from banning the age-old practice of male circumcision.

An advocacy group pressured authorities in the San Francisco Bay Area this summer to ban the practice of male circumcision in the city. When the attempt was challenged at a California Superior Court, the judge ruled that the practice of circumcision cannot be banned in the city.

The judge said the issue should not appear on the city’s ballot papers in a special ballot this November because male circumcision is a medical practice and no city in the state could ban it unilaterally. The ruling gave the right to modify the practice to the state and not the individual cities in the state.

Under the new law, the cities and the various levels of local government don’t have the right to restrict the practice of circumcision. The new legislation “declares that the laws affecting male circumcision must have uniform application throughout the state.”