California’s Legislature has approved a bill that would prevent the state’s municipalities from banning male circumcision.
The state Assembly approved the bill Sept. 6. It comes on the heels of two attempts to place circumcision bans on the November ballot.
The bill now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature and would take effect immediately. Brown has not taken a position on the bill, according to the Sacramento Bee.
A state Superior Court judge ruled in July that an anti-circumcision measure in San Francisco be struck from the ballot because the city lacked the authority to regulate a medical procedure. Activists in Santa Monica earlier had withdrawn an identical proposal that had not yet made it to the ballot.
The San Francisco initiative would have made the practice of circumcising a minor a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or up to one year in jail, and offered no exemption for religious ritual. It would have been the first time that such a measure appeared on a ballot, according to the Anti-Defamation League. — jta