(JTA) — A Florida woman arrested for fleeing with her 4-year-old son to keep him from being circumcised signed a consent form for the procedure in order to get out of prison.
Heather Hironimus, 31, was released from a Florida jail on Saturday morning. She signed the papers after first refusing during a hearing on Friday. She spent nine nights in jail.
Hironimus, of Boynton Beach was arrested on May 14 after going into hiding in a Broward County domestic violence shelter with her son Chase three months earlier rather than give her consent and turn the boy over for the surgery. An arrest warrant for Hironimus was issued in March after Hironimus failed to show up to hand the boy over to his father as required in the couple’s custody-sharing agreement.
Hironimus and the boy’s father, Dennis Nebus of Boca Raton, had agreed to the circumcision three years ago as part of their separation deal. Hironimus backed out of the surgery and Nebus took her to court. In May, an appeals court in Florida upheld lower court rulings in favor of Nebus and the circumcision. The parents, neither of whom is Jewish, were never married.
Hironimus could still be criminally charged with interference with child custody.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Gillen on Friday gave Nebus temporary sole authority for Chase’s medical decisions and allowed him to travel out of state for the circumcision, which had not yet been scheduled, according to the Associated Press.
Activists, including Hironimus’ mother, said they would reach out to doctors throughout the country to prevent the procedure from taking place, the AP reported.
Nebus has called circumcision “just the normal thing to do.”
