Video: Florida mom faces five years in prison over circumcision dispute

Old and busted: Florida Man. New hotness: Florida Mom. Heather Hironimus faces five years in prison after absconding with her four-year-old son in a dispute with the father over circumcision. The dispute has activists in an uproar, and the child’s attorney pledges to fight the procedure — but that won’t help the mother much, even though she’s conceded and consented to the procedure:

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ABC News Videos | ABC Entertainment News

A Florida mother is out of jail after spending more than a week behind bars during an ongoing dispute over circumcising her son.

Heather Hironimus, 31, posted bond and was released Saturday night, authorities said.

Hironimus had been taken into custody May 14 after she went missing for several months with her 4-year-old son, allegedly to avoid a court order to circumcise him, according to court records. She was taken to jail on charges including interference with custody, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office.

On Friday, she signed paperwork to allow the procedure, attorney Ira Marcus, who represents the boy’s father, Dennis Nebus, told ABC News.

Anti-circumcision activists have flocked to Hironimus’ side of the dispute. They claim to have intimidated urologists across Florida into declining the operation, which at the boy’s age would require general anaesthesia, and vowed to expand that campaign across the whole United States. One activist interviewed by ABC News said, “The idea that a federal judge, or anyone else for that matter, would care more about him and his well-being more than his own mother and his own family is ridiculous.”

Does the boy’s father count as “anyone else” or “his own family,” though? The father wants the circumcision performed not for religious reasons, but to correct a medical condition. Sun Sentinel reporter Marc Freeman has followed the case as it has unfolded, and explains that the father argued to the court that his son has been diagnosed with a disorder in the foreskin called phimosis, in which it fails to retract and makes normal urination difficult. The mother initially agreed to the treatment but reneged before it could be done, and offered a competing diagnosis:

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When Hironimus failed to appear in court with the boy, the judge declared the mother had willfully violated an order enforcing a 2012 parenting plan — she and Nebus signed it — that allows for the circumcision.

Hironimus said she changed her mind about the procedure after learning more about it.

Hunker has argued that the boy’s urologist determined there is no medical need for the circumcision, nor are there any religious reasons for it.

Nebus has testified he decided in late 2013 the circumcision was necessary because the boy was urinating on his leg due to a condition called phimosis, which prevents retraction of the foreskin.

The mother’s attorneys have pleaded in court that the procedure will put the child at risk of surgical complications, brain damage or death, because of a history of problems with general anesthesia and scarring.

Hironimus, claiming her son is afraid his penis will be cut off, deserves a right to a psychological examination before the circumcision is forced upon him.

Physicians will have more insight into this condition than laymen, of course, but this condition seems to be a source of considerable controversy in both diagnosis and treatment, especially at this age. Hironimus had her day in court, though, which had an opportunity to weigh the various diagnoses and options in the initial dispute and sided with the father. The woman fled the jurisdiction and denied the father contact with his child, the latter of which certainly wouldn’t be about the boy’s “well-being,” as the activist put it.

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Hironimus has given up on the circumcision, hoping to gain some leniency with the court on the third-degree felony of interference with custody:

ABC reports that she’s been released on bail, but her legal woes are far from over. The father now has full custody for the next 90 days, and it’s almost certain that the surgery will take place during that period of time. Perhaps once that issue has been mooted the court will decide enough is enough, assuming that activists don’t make issues any worse than they already are. It may be difficult for Hironimus to regain any kind of custody arrangement after absconding with the child in defiance of a court order no matter how merciful the judge in the criminal case decides to be.

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