Andrew Freedman is stirring up a lot of dust, but in all his apologizing for people getting the wrong message from the AAP about circumcision, he's never acknowledged that there are people who feel harmed by unwanted circumcision. This blog post explores Freedman's fraudulent ethical model and his fraught relationship with circumcision sufferers.
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Dr. Freedman was the lead pediatric urologist on the 2012 AAP Task Force on Circumcision, and recently he's been trying to correct misunderstandings about circumcision that are common in the US. Watch his March 2026 Grand Rounds presentation here: https://youtu.be/wwFKB1u7X_M
Dr. Freedman was the lead pediatric urologist on the 2012 AAP Task Force on Circumcision, and recently he's been trying to correct misunderstandings about circumcision that are common in the US. Watch his March 2026 Grand Rounds presentation here: https://youtu.be/wwFKB1u7X_M
Every word comes directly from the Grand Rounds presentation that Dr. Freedman gave on March 18, 2026. The QR code takes you to the youtube link. When I post these to my pages, I plan on sharing these as a "countdown" starting from 7 and going down to 1 to build interest. Please share widely!
“Everything You Think You Know About Circumcision is Probably Wrong” - Dr. Andrew Freedman, M.D., Cedars-Sinai Grand Rounds Presentation, March 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwFKB1u7X_M
Myth 1: Circumcision is a medical procedure. “Circumcision is a tribal ritual. Circumcision is done by medical professionals in the US because it is a dangerous tribal ritual.”
Myth 2: the AAP supports circumcision “I want to personally apologize for that because I was on the guidelines” “the AAP at that point recognized that really families wanted circumcision not for medical reasons. The medical reasons are mostly a cover.”
Myth 3: Benefits outweigh the risks “16 boys a year were dying during circumcision. That was a one in 6,000 rate in the UK.” “when you look at 10 or 12 kids a year dying from under one year of age dying from circumcision, I mean it's still shocking.”
Myth 4: Complications are minor and rare On glans amputation: “if you go to a pediatric urology meeting, ask anyone who's ever seen this, every hand goes up. Everybody's done at least one of these.”
Myth 5: If you have a circumcision, you'll never have a problem with your penis “circumcision was no protection from seeing me.”
Myth 6: Circumcision doesn’t hurt “I hope we never hear this anymore. I mean, I don't think this is debatable anymore.“ “It hurts. They feel it, okay?”
Myth 7: Circumcision is ethical “Their ethical standard is a right to bodily integrity. So this is a right to not have your body changed without your consent and in minors only can intervene in the case of medical necessity.”
Myth 8: Circumcision is only done by OBs “More OBs are opting out” “the first department to really acknowledge that they stopped performing services was the University of Michigan”
Myth 9: Doctors want to do circumcisions because they are greedy “I want to argue that no one's getting rich doing circumcisions for insurance money.”
Myth 10: At Cedars, the process for getting a circumcision works perfectly. “there's a lot of people who don't want to do it.” “a lot of the younger physicians don't want to do it anymore.”
I'm working on turning these into shareable graphics that will get more attention and be more accessible than the video itself.
In April 2026, Intact Global hosted it’s second annual conference, and the Genital Autonomy Collective presented on why inclusive activism is necessary and how to do inclusive activism. This post is an edited version of that presentation.
A recent neurological study demonstrates that it is the F-spot (frenular delta) that is the center of erogenous sensation of the intact penis, rather than the glans or head of the penis. Circumcision damages or even completely removes the specialized structures of the F-spot.