NYC Requirement for Consent for Metzitzah B’peh Receives Temporary Stay

Not a week has passed since several Jewish organizations and three rabbis filed suit against the New York City Department of Health (DOH) seeking an injunction against regulations that would illegally inhibit andunfairly criticize a form of circumcision that has been safely practiced by Jewish people across the world for thousands of years. Now, Matzav.com has learned, that Judge Naomi Reice Buchwaldin the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, has postponed a requirement for parental consent for metzitzah b’peh until no earlier than mid-November.

The suit filed by the Jewish organizations had argued that the DOH is attempting to discourage metzitzah b’peh by requiring all mohalim to distribute a form stating that MBP can lead to serious health risks. That regulation, they said, violates both the rights to free speech and freedom of religion.

The suit argued that “the government cannot compel the transmission of messages that the speaker does not want to express-especially when the speaker is operating in an area of heightened First Amendment protection, such as a religious ritual.”

The lawsuit is supported by affidavits from experts in infectious diseases, epidemiology and statistical analysis that question the assessment and methodology of the DOH in forming its opinion about the safety of MBP.

The suit was filed in federal court in Manhattan and asks to stop the DOH from implementing its regulation.

As the suit states on the DOH’s own theory, there have been eighty-four cases of HSV reported in infants over the past five years, and 79 of those cases arose in females, uncircumcised males or males whose circumcision did not include MBP. Yet, the few cases that might possibly have arisen after MBP have been the sole focus of the Department’s regulatory attention, leaving entirely unaddressed the other risks of HSV which accounts for well over 90% of reported cases. After correcting for the Department’s methodological errors, these expert affidavits demonstrated that HSV arises no more frequently after MBP than it does in newborns who did not receive MBP.

The decision to defer the consent requirement was announced earlier today.

The new regulations had been expected to be implemented this Sunday, October 21. It will now be temporarily postponed until November 14, at which time a hearing will take place.

{Andy Heller-Matzav.com Newscenter}