"The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday announced its first major shift on circumcision in more than a decade concluding that the health benefits of the procedure clearly outweigh any risks. There is clear evidence that supports the health benefits of circumcision said Susan Blank who led the member task force that formulated the new policy httppediatrics.aappublications.orgcgidoi.peds. being published in the journal Pediatrics. The statement and accompanying technical report httppediatrics.aappublications.orgcontente marks the first revision of the organizations position since  when the academy backed away from circumcision. At that time the group which represents about  pediatricians nationwide concluded that there was no clear evidence for or against circumcising newborns. The group affirmed that position in . Since then the popularity of circumcision in the United States has declined. Only about  percent of newborn males are circumcised. The academys task force spent seven years combing through the latest research analyzing more than a thousand studies. Their conclusion For starters Blank says circumcision helps baby boys pretty much immediately. The health benefits of male circumcision include a drop in the risk of urinary tract infection in the first year of life by up to  percent she says. Article continues after this message from our sponsor But theres a much bigger reason to do it Blank said. Circumcised males are far less likely to get infected with a long list of sexually transmitted diseases. It drops the risk of heterosexual HIV acquisition by about  percent. It drops the risk of human papillomavirus HPV herpes virus and other infectious genital ulcers she says. It also reduces the chances that men will spread HPV to their wives and girlfriends protecting them from getting cervical cancer. Weve reviewed the data and you know we have gone through them with a finetooth comb and the data are pretty convincing she says. Critics however were not convinced. They liken the procedure to female genital mutilation. We have no right as parents or as physicians or adults to strap them down and chop off a normal part of their body. To do that is a human rights violation and an ethical travesty says Georgeanne Chapin httpintactamerica.orggchapin of the anticircumcision group Intact America http Chapin and other critics argue that the scientific evidence is questionable. For one thing the studies about HIV have only been done in Africa where AIDS is much more common among heterosexuals. Theyre cherrypicking their evidence she says. They act as though theres this huge body of literature. Its all the same couple of studies that have been regurgitated and reprogrammed. Over the past  years all kinds of medical benefits have been proposed as resulting from cutting off the foreskin and they have all been disproven. Critics also question the safety of the procedure saying too many boys are damaged for life by botched circumcisions. But many experts say the academy is making the right call. They dismiss any comparison to female genital mutilation as grossly misleading and say male circumcision is about as safe as any procedure could be. Some think the academys position is long overdue and that the group should have gone even further and more forcefully recommended circumcision. I think that all healthy newborn babies should be circumcised says Edgar Schoen http_qualifications.html a professor emeritus at the University of California San Francisco. I feel about newborn circumcision the way I do about immunization Its a potent preventive health procedure that gives you a health advantage. For its part the pediatricians group hopes the new recommendations will encourage more parents to circumcise their sons  and more insurance plans to pay for it. As Shots reported last week a lot of state Medicaid programs have stopped covering http_sthdl circumcision. Those families who choose circumcision should have access to circumcision. Cost should not be a barrier Blank says. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention http has been promising for years now to issue the governments first guidelines about circumcision. But the CDC keeps delaying it and still has not said when that will happen."