A Boynton Beach, Florida, woman who went into hiding with her 4 1/2-year-old son rather than abide by a judge’s order to have him circumcised has filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming a forced circumcision would violate her son’s constitutional rights.
In the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Heather Hironimus claims there is no medical justification to circumcise her son, identified as C.R.N.H., and many legal and medical reasons not to do it.
“(The) application of Florida law to impose unnecessary, elective, cosmetic circumcision upon C.R.N.H. at the age of 4 1/2 years old for no religious reason violates (the boy’s) fundamental right to privacy and bodily integrity secured by the due process clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States,” her attorney Thomas Hunker wrote.
Hunker also claims the circumcision, sought by the boy’s father, constitutes “assault, aggravated assault, battery and aggravated battery.” It would cause irreparable psychological damage and provide few health benefits, Hunker says in the suit to be heard by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra.
Heather Hironimus, 30, and her son have been in hiding since last month when Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Gillen ordered her to bring her son to court to turn him over to the boy’s father, Dennis Nebus. When she didn’t appear at the hearing, Gillen signed a warrant for her arrest.
The federal lawsuit is the latest volley Hironimus has fired in the long-running legal fight to block the circumcision.
Three months after the boy was born in 2010, Nebus, 47, of Boca Raton, filed suit to establish his parental rights. In 2012, Hironimus signed a parenting agreement, allowing Nebus to have the boy circumcised as long as he paid for it. Soon after, she said she had second thoughts about allowing her son to undergo the procedure.
She launched a court battle and one on social media seeking to persuade Gillen not to enforce the agreement. After various court hearings, Gillen in May ruled that the agreement trumped her reservations. The 4th District Court of Appeal upheld his decision without comment.
Protests by those who identify themselves as “intactivists" have been held throughout the county to support Hironimus’ efforts to spare her son from circumcision.
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