HB94

I support cessation of Medicaid coverage of the unethical, non-therapeutic, nonconsensual genital cutting (euphemism: circumcision) of boys. Foreskin is a valuable and functional part of the body. The complications of genital cutting are numerous (meatal stenosis, reduced sensation, bleeding, infection, pain, trauma) and often unreported, and most importantly they are entirely preventable. We don't cut girls, and we need to stop cutting boys. When we know better, we do better.

Please consider this bill and put your confidence in it. It is the right thing to do for people. They must have a choice for dying and one is necessary. I am a minister in the state. Thank you.

As a young adult who has been circumcised as an infant, I feel that it is so unjust--so unfair--that I never had a say. This is a matter that should go beyond a religious stance. It's a matter of bodily autonomy, not a matter of indoctrination. It's quite hypocritical to be protecting females from circumcision when baby boys get a similar procedure. The matter isn't whether one is worse or better than the other. The matter is both are absolved of consent. If one can agree on that, then one can understand that circumcision is a violation of bodily autonomy. Religion should not be a viable argument.

I support the dropping of Medicaid funding of circumcision. No taxpayer dollars should ever be used for a cosmetic surgery that is painful, traumatic, and has lifelong physical and psychological consequences.

I was mutilated as a newborn baby, please stop genitally mutilating babies. There are very few medical conditions where this procedure is needed, it should only be done when it is medically required. Stop genitally mutilating babies. Stop funding acts of violence against defenseless babies. Babies cant consent. Stop. Please stop.

I am a Jewish American, and I support this bill. From a religious freedom perspective, we should not expect taxpayers to subsidize religious rituals. I would not want the government helping pay for baptisms, or any similar rite of another religion, so I do not think it is appropriate for the taxpayers to pay for this one, let alone under the auspices of Medicaid. As a medical procedure, routine infant circumcision is not recommended by the AAP, it is also not covered by Medicaid in some other US States as well as by public healthcare schemes in other developed nations. Ultimately every taxpayer dollar spent on this elective, non-medical procedure, is a dollar that could instead go to making necessary medical care more affordable, which is more in line with the purpose for which Medicaid is funded in the first place. Very Respectfully, Keith Kelley

The practice is inhumane and unnecessary. Would you fund Plastic surgery? of course not. Here is an easy to follow analogy to show the truth behind the practice: Imagine there was an extremely painful surgery to make it to where a child would be bald for life. Would it be ok to do this to the most vulnerable people possible? Most would say no. You can even see the same arguments as in "easier to clean". In fact, Hair is way harder to keep clean! Hair is mostly just cosmetic yet people see it as important to their self image. Now imagine doing the same to a significant portion of a baby's penis. It is a violation of human rights and the 14th amendment.

The right to an intact body and the freedom from physical abuse at the hands of another person should be unquestionable for all people in America and especially our most vulnerable. No person should have the right to choose to modify the body of a child no matter their relationship. The fact that genital mutilation is legal in any form in this country is reprehensible. That government money can be spent to destroy the body of a baby boy is unconscionable. My parents and doctors and hospital took my foreskin from me and I wish that they had not. You should NOT be able to pay for this procedure with government insurance.

Boys deserve their whole bodies, including their foreskin. Boys are born perfect just like girls. Protect boys' human rights by keeping their foreskin intact. Please support this bill, which stops wasting Medicaid resources on an unnecessary, cosmetic and harmful procedure forced on baby boys who cannot consent.

Hi, I support this bill because circumcision decisions are being made without the consent of the child who is receiving the operation. It affects them for life in many ways. Also, circumcision is rooted is religious roots and it's not even regarded as a standard practice anymore. For that reason, medicaid should not be covering this. There needs to be a separation between religious and state. The government is supposed to be secular.

Circumcision is child abuse and terrible trauma. The male genital mutilation (circumcision) exposed my penis sensitive glans to sexual stimulation due to friction with underwear in age of four years old. Because of that sexual-pain experience I discovered masturbation in age of four years old. In addition, I suffer from autism mainly because of circumcision. Circumcision is unnecessary surgical mutilation practiced widely in USA on male humans only. This is a gender discrimination against innocent male babies. It has terrible consequences on man psychology. Autism rate in USA is higher than in Europe, mass shooting is higher than in Europe too and it is easy to identify neurosis in circumcised men as a result from early childhood abuse and trauma of circumcision. Please accept, support and spread new published medical studies about damages of circumcision. See for example: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150109093725.htm Majority of men don't accept to talk publicly about their suffering due to male genital mutilation(circumcision) because it is sensitive, private and embarrassing issue. I will not make a public testimony. I am naturalized citizen from Middle East, I am Muslim and I am against circumcision because it was never mentioned in Holy Quran, core scripture of Islam. Circumcision was added to Islam centuries after Prophet Mohammed death by corrupted and evil clergy to justify enslavement of conquered nations. Please stop supporting circumcision and instead, support medical and psychological studies about harm of circumcision. Thank you and I have faith in USA people.

Dear Committee Members, I’m writing in support of HB94. As victim of infant circumcision, which I never would have consented to, I cannot think of a greater waste of taxpayer dollars, nor a greater miscarriage of justice on mass scale, than paying healthcare providers to mutilate the genitals of helpless children for no medical reason. There is simply no other surgery or medical procedure like it — dangerous, inherently harmful and destructive, not recommended by any major medical association. In fact, it’s not a medical procedure at all, but rather a medicalized sexual assault on a non-consenting child. “Circumcision” of children only continues in the U.S. due to massive corruption in our country’s medical associations that allow it to continue as a cash cow for “cultural reasons,” preying on the fears and lack of informed consent of new parents. Please help make New Hampshire truly the “free” state that it aspires to be, by stopping funding for this atrocity and helping parents understand what they are signing for. Sincerely, Kevin Kopelman New York, NY Former Pembroke, NH resident

I consider myself a devout Christian. I’ve grown up a Christian and to me, this is nothing more than another (barbaric) cosmetic procedure based on the unchecked norms that were established by an unchecked extremist.

https://www.bloodstainedmen.com/wp-content/uploads/Gomco2.mp4 https://www.bloodstainedmen.com/wp-content/uploads/Plastibell3.mp4

I have been haunted by my circumcision my whole life. The foreskin is a natural part of the human body. I wish I had the choice to decide whether or not to get circumcised. Not have that decision forced upon me. How can American taxpayers still fund this barbaric procedure, please stop it.

My neonatal circumcision was performed as a cosmetic procedure. The release and disclaimer form in my medical records say so. I do not believe that public funds should be used to pay for cosmetic procedures on infants because of the desires of the parents. I would like to testify in person but was only made aware of the hearing yesterday.

The theft of foreskin should be illegal. It should not be supported with insurance. Often, during the theft of foreskin it is intentionally donenin a way to create an "extra" lack of skin on one side the penis. Which, will cause the penis to be bent went erect. Most bent penis's are because of this. Only a very small amount are caused by other factors during the course of life. Or, medical abnormalities. The reason it is done on purpose at an angle are varied. But, specifically in regards to the opinion of assisting a male towards homosexual tendencies, and rarely in comparison by way of an accident. Regardless, the mutilation of a male and the theft of his foreskin should not be done. It should definitely not be covered by any insurance public or private. My Funny Valentine is a song that talks about this subject and this topic. This is not a new secondary alteration. It has been studied for many years and sung about for a very long time. The subsequent results on the developing males body are horrific. It will effect the development of blood flow in the brain, and the entire musculature, including all circulatory systems in a males body. It will change the direction of growth. Such, as the teeth. This is not a joke, and a real topic sung about it that song. It says, is your body less than Greek, does it bother you to speak, or such. As, the effects are devastating and well known. It will make it more difficult to talk, enlarge the prostate, and change the development of a male. While, none if any of you even speak against circumcision, people have been doing this additional torture, and it has been openly spoke and sung about for a long time. Don't forget the official Chairman of the Board, Mr. Sinatra. Please, stop the theft, especially when nearly all of you will condemn "sex change" operations for children. But, not even recognize who you should be respecting.

Yesterday, President Trump issued an Executive Order ending all funding and support from the federal government for nontherapeutic pediatric surgical procedures “that attempt to alter or remove an individual’s sexual organs to minimize or destroy their natural biological functions.” Nontherapeutic child genital cutting (the most common male form of this is referred to colloquially as “circumcision”), that is, elective genital cutting for which there is not a compelling medical need, falls well within the scope of what is targeted by the Executive Order.. Circumcision removes a healthy, normal, naturally occurring part of the penis that has several functions. The penis in its natural state is self-lubricating, a function that obviously facilitates intercourse and normal sexual function. However, self-lubrication is a function that depends entirely on the foreskin; if the foreskin is removed, then the self-lubrication function is completely destroyed. The foreskin also protects the glans against keratinization, an irreversible hardening and desensitization of the glans. Circumcision also removes blood vessels, nerve endings and smooth muscle tissue, including the Dartford tissue that facilitates both arousal and regulation and control of the same — all of which are a normal part of male sexual function that is destroyed by circumcision. Surgery to remove a part of a healthy child’s genitals, done to a child too young to consent or even understand what is being done, violates all four cardinal principles of medical ethics. The federal government is acting against this barbaric practice; New Hampshire should now do its part to end public funding of it.

I am appalled that in this good country that prides itself on human rights and forward thinking - that we allow our tax dollars to fund the medically unnecessary genital cutting of perfectly healthy baby boys, which I myself am a victim of. Having intact genitals is not a diagnosis for treatment; treatment for which the patient cannot consent, the decision made by those who do not own his genitals - yet, the consequences are felt by the victim for the rest of his life. Circumcision, as of 1996, is a clear violation of the 14th amendment which promises equal protection of both genders under the law.