On January 29, 2025 the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee of the New Hampshire legislature heard testimony in support of HB94, a bill introduced by Republican member Julius Soti (Rockingham 35th pictured above) to remove newborn circumcision coverage from the state Medicaid plan. In testimony lasting over 90 minutes, close to a dozen speakers offered support for the bill, with only three speakers opposing the bill. GALDEF submitted written testimony in support of ending Medicaid coverage.

In GALDEF’s letter, Executive Director Tim Hammond emphasized that “Besides being medically unnecessary, infant circumcision is painful and traumatic to newborns, it removes specialized erogenous tissue, and damages the inherent design and functioning of human male genitalia. Since the 1990s, evidence has been emerging about long-term adverse physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and self-esteem consequences upon infants, children, adolescents and the adults they become; evidence that the American for-profit medical industry has never fully acknowledged  or studied and which it chooses to ignore.” The full letter can be accessed here.

As readers may be aware, last year GALDEF reported on a similar bill (HB1683) to remove Medicaid funding for newborn circumcision, which received hearings in January 2024. At that time GALDEF submitted written testimony and Vice President Mat Goodwin offered his in-person testimony. After the hearings, the bill was tabled until this next legislative session.

In this year’s legislature, Rep. Soti was given less than five days advance notice of HB94’s planned hearing in the Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee. Despite this short notice, Intaction admirably organized impressive in-person and written support for the bill.

UPDATE March 6, 2025:
HB94 (Defunding Medicaid Coverage of Circumcision) passed in the House by one vote, 184 to 183! In this video, it’s discussed from 1:45:20 to 2:17:06. Rep. Adrienne Soti said “Thank you all for helping us arrive at this point.  We will now be on the lookout for a Senate hearing date.”