Danish municipality leaves circumcision up to parents

According to Mette Mortensen, the director of health, it is not up to the municipality to teach parents what is right and wrong to do, Kristeligt Dagblad wrote on Sunday. She argues that the pamphlet exceeds what health nurses are authorised to advise parents about. “We, including healthcare, have no legal basis for saying what is the right and wrong thing to do.”

Ritual

A year ago, the opinion of the municipality was different. At that time, there was upheaval because Ballerup Municipality wrote in its health policy that the authorities should encourage parents of boys not to circumcise their children.

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As long as a doctor is present at the ritual, circumcision is not illegal in Denmark. Also, none of the national health authorities discourages the common practice among Jews and Muslims. Therefore, any municipality that wanted to include it in its health policy would have to pioneer this field.

Prejudice

And that is not easy, Ballerup Municipality found out. Kristeligt Dagblad writes that the issue led to many questions, such as how to implement the policy. The Danish newspaper furthermore found out that the health department of the municipality had spent half a year preparing materials to be distributed to parents of newborn boys.

The idea was that the pamphlets would be without prejudice and professionally justified so that “it could qualify the parents’ choice if they were considering having their newborn boy circumcised”, health nurses’ team leader Lotte Stenz explained to Kristeligt Dagblad at the end of January.

Ballerup Municipality included retired specialist doctor Jørgen Hoppe in the process of drafting the pamphlet. Hoppe is known for his critical stance on circumcision. He agrees with a theory that asserts that circumcision leads to life-long trauma because of the pain it causes to the child.

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In the autumn, the project was passed by the political communication department. At the same time, it was met with more and more resistance, for example, from the medical committee that worried that the pamphlet did not consider that circumcision is an important religious ritual for some groups. The committee was concerned that nurses showing up with “unsolicited advice” would weaken the relationship with Muslim citizens, for example.

Opinion poll

The issue of circumcision has been controversial for some time in Denmark already. In May 2021, a citizens’ proposal for an age limit for the circumcision of boys was voted down by the Folketing. At the same time, an opinion poll showed that about 86 per cent of the Danes believe that circumcision of minors should be banned, Kristeligt Dagblad writes.