A Los Angeles lawmaker is pushing legislation that would bar cities and counties from banning male circumcision � a proposal aimed squarely at San Francisco.
A San Francisco initiative seeks a ban on circumcision. If ultimately approved by local voters, it would impose a $1,000 fine and a year in jail, or both, on violators.
Gatto�s AB 768� would prevent any local legislation attempting to regulate or ban male circumcision. The bill originally dealt with providing incentives for using bio-fuels, and it passed the Assembly in that form and was set to reach a Senate committee.
But it was rewritten to address circumcision on July 7 � a maneuver known in the Capitol as a hijack or a gut-and-amend. It is set to return to the Senate committee in the altered form and face its first major policy test.
The bill is a response to recent proposed bans on circumcision.