- Posted September 17, 2025
Circumcision Down In U.S., Partly Due To Parental Mistrust Of Doctors, Study Says
Circumcision rates have declined significantly in the United States, driven in part by parents’ distrust of medical advice, a new study says.
Circumcision of newborn boys declined from 54% to 49% between 2012 and 2022, according to records from more than 1.5 million U.S. male births.
The trend flies in the face of doctors’ advice, researchers said, noting that the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have all recommended that male babies be circumcised for lifelong health benefits.
The surgical removal of the foreskin from the penis is known to provide many health benefits, including better hygiene and a lower risk of urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases.
“Based on our findings, we believe that multiple factors may contribute to the decline in the number of neonates circumcised,” co-senior researcher Dr. Aaron Tobian, a professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, said in a news release.
The sort of distrust that’s led to vaccine skepticism and hesitancy is likely one of those factors, researchers said.
“Despite overwhelming evidence that neonatal male circumcisions provide health benefits, increasing public skepticism in the United States toward medical recommendations may be driving more parents to choose not to have their sons get circumcised,” Tobian said.
The growth of America’s Hispanic population also might play a role in this trend, Tobian said.
Circumcisions dropped by more than 5% among white male babies, from more than 65% in 2012 to 60% in 2022.
But rates remained relatively stable in Black, Asian and Hispanic infants, with rates hovering around 65%, 38% and 21% for each, researchers found.
“Hispanics — the ethnic group that historically reports the lowest circumcision prevalence — also is the largest growing population in the United States,” Tobian said. “Therefore, the overall circumcision rate is skewed downward.”
Changes in public health insurance also might have reduced circumcisions, researchers said.
“By 2011, one year before our study period began, 17 states had ended Medicaid coverage for routine neonatal male circumcisions,” Tobian said. “This likely created barriers to such services for families at low-income levels during the decade we analyzed.”
For the study, researchers analyzed data from the Kids’ Inpatient Database, a nationally representative dataset of U.S. childhood hospitalizations maintained by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The study was published Sept. 15 in JAMA Pediatrics.
More information
The American Academy of Pediatrics has more on circumcision.
SOURCE: Johns Hopkins Medicine, news release, Sept. 15, 2025
