After a longstanding battle with her husband over her son's circumcision, Heather Hironimus tearfully conceded and gave her consent to have her son circumcised - but not before spending more than a week in jail.
Hironimus appeared in court Friday to sign paperwork stating her agreement to let her 4-year-old boy go through the procedure.
Hironimus and the boy's father, Dennis Nebus, have been battling for years about whether their son should be circumcised or not. In February, she finally agreed to it after a parenting agreement was filed in court. However, she changed her mind again and refused to give her consent.
Her case attracted the media, and she quickly became a heroine of sorts for anti-circumcision activists, otherwise known as "intactivists," who followed her story in the news.
Her refusal to give her consent coupled with the public attention the case was getting made the doctors who were supposed to do the procedure on her son back out, particularly when anti-circumcision groups have started to target them during protests, The Guardian reported.
The 31-year-old mother disappeared with her son shortly afterward and went missing for a few months until she was arrested on May 14.
In court, Hironimus remained stubborn about her refusal to allow her son's circumcision, but when Judge Jeffrey Gillen informed her in no uncertain terms that she could be jailed indefinitely for her actions, she finally agreed to sign, according to Fox 17.
However, her agreement to give the consent did not save her from serving time for interfering with child custody. She was released on Saturday after she posted bond.
Hironimus and Nebus became involved in a relationship for six months but did not get married. They always argued over circumcision about their son. Nebus would say it was "just the normal thing to do," while Hironimus would protest and claim that her son didn't want to do it. She also said it might cause psychological trauma to the boy.
Georganne Chapin, executive director of anti-circumcision group Intact America, condemned the judge and said that Hironimus was "bullied" into consenting.
"If anyone finds out the circumstances under which she signed, a doctor would be insane to carry out that surgery," she said, according to MSN.
