Throughout 2024 and 2025, in a single-handed effort to hold numerous physicians, published authors, hospitals, and pediatric clinics in Australia and the United States accountable for citing the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) now-expired 2012 circumcision policy statement, Circumcision Law Reform (CLR), based in Perth, Australia,  has achieved a 100% success rate in getting those entities to remove or modify references to the expired citation.

In November 2025 GALDEF Executive Director Tim Hammond brought to CLR’s attention a July 28, 2025 article by Freymiller and Thompson that cited the expired AAP policy. The article, titled What Parents Should Understand About Infant Male Circumcision was published by the American Medical Association (AMA) on its Pediatrics Patient page, the original of which is still viewable (as of 26 Dec 2025) on this non-JAMA website.

The JAMA article not only cited the AAP’s expired 2012 circumcision policy but contained biased terms like “uncircumcised” and other information prejudicial toward circumcision, which drew extensive public criticism, including from intactivist Dan Bollinger and pediatrician Dr. Robert Van Howe.

In response to Hammond’s notification, CLR’s Kevin Barrett remarked “Given there is already scathing comments published under this article, my plan would be to try and escalate the matter to the AMA ethics board and the external agency Committee On Publication Ethics (COPE) to which JAMA holds membership. It seems clear JAMA will not change or remove the article without external pressure.”

Barrett’s tactic received a swift and appreciative response from JAMA Network’s Executive Managing Editor and Vice President of Editorial Operations, Annette Flanagin, stating “JAMA Network has discussed your concerns, and we are working with the authors to correct this Patient Page.”

On December 19 JAMA published a correction page (doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.6223) alerting readers to significant changes that were made to the original article. The updated article What Parents Should Understand About Infant Male Circumcision (JAMA Pediatr 2025;179;(9):1048. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.2214) is now available on the JAMA website.

According to Barrett, “The updated article introduces more neutral terminology, removes disputed claims, softens benefit statements, and adds ethical context. It also removes references to outdated AAP policy positions and clarifies risk framing. Overall, the revised version is less prescriptive, less biased toward circumcision, and more aligned with current ethical and scientific debates.”

He added, “This outcome without question signals a prominent shift in the mindsets of those who control the narrative. They just needed to face a strong case of accountability. The statements and wording removed is an incredibly important outcome as are the new inclusions that were made. Each of the following (now removed) sentences served as justification by parents and doctors alike to force this upon children and we should not underestimate the potential for it to cause prominent change.”

• “Circumcision is a practice that has been a part of human culture for thousands of years.”
• “The American Academy of Pediatrics supports access to the procedure for newborns so that parents can choose.”
• “Current evidence finds that the benefits are greater than the risks, but each family needs to make the right choice for themselves”
• “Early circumcision also allows early and continuous health benefits compared with waiting until the individual can choose.”
• “A child is 10 times more likely to have bleeding after their tonsils are removed than with a newborn circumcision.”
• “Importantly, health benefits of circumcision start immediately, protecting a newborn from certain infections or penile cancer”
• “Circumcision can also help to protect their partners from HPV too.”

CLR prepared a before/after comparison chart (below) that tracks each of the improvements made to the article and has released a detailed 19-page “JAMA Pediatrics Circumcision Patient Page Correction Analysis and Impact Report” available here.

Those wishing to be part of a coordinated team of individuals willing to learn from and work strategically with CLR on similar projects are invited to contact CLR at circumcisionlawreform@gmail.com