An anti-circumcision group was in Pensacola on Wednesday protesting at the corner of Bayou Boulevard and North Ninth Avenue against what they called "genital mutilation of infant boys."

The group, Bloodstained Men and their Friends, donned cowboy hats and all-white outfits with blood-like red stains on the groin area, toting signs that read things like "Intact Genitals are a Human Right" and "Male is Not a Diagnosis" across the busy intersection in front of Sacred Heart Hospital.

"We are a nationwide nonprofit human rights organization and we do about 60 protests a year across the United States and Canada educating people about the harms of infant circumcision," said Harry Guiremand, the group's spokesman. "It's an unnecessary surgery performed on a healthy, non-consenting minor that causes great pain and trauma."

Circumcision is a medical procedure performed on male infants usually within a few days of birth, in which the baby's foreskin is removed. The American Academy of Pediatrics maintains that the "medical benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks" and cites lower chances of contracting STDs and HIV, penile cancer and urinary tract infections as medical benefits to the procedure.

"However, while there are potential medical benefits, these data are not sufficient to recommend routine neonatal circumcision of all boys," the AAP says in a statement on its website. "We recommend that the decision to circumcise is one best made by parents in consultation with their pediatrician, taking into account what is in the best interests of the child, including medical, religious, cultural, and ethnic traditions and personal beliefs."

Bloodstained Men and their Friends are on a 22-city tour of the Gulf Coast that kicked off in Houston last Sunday. The group's next stop is in Tallahassee on Nov. 1. They plan to protest in Orlando this weekend at an American Academy of Pediatrics conference.

A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that between 1979 and 2010, the national rate of newborn circumcision in the United States fell 10 percent, from 64 percent to 58.3 percent.

Annie Blanks can be reached at ablanks@pnj.com or 850-435-8632.