Female genital mutilation in the US has “more than tripled” in the past two decades, CNN reports.
This tripling coincides with the rise of immigration from countries and cultures where FGM is a common practice.
“Since 1990, the estimated number of girls and women in the US who have undergone or are at risk of the practice has more than tripled. The increase is due to rapid growth in the number of immigrants from countries where risk of FGM is greatest. These girls and women are concentrated in California, New York and Minnesota,” according to CNN.
“US statistics don’t distinguish between survivors of the practice and people at risk, though there’s an effort underway to change that,” the report said.
CNN’s written reporting, by Michelle Crupa, is balanced and unbiased. However, the CNN video accompanying the report begins with a white Christian woman who says her parents had her clitoris amputated at age three to discourage her from touching herself (“it happened here in white Christian America”), and a black Christian woman who had FGM performed on her when she was a baby in Africa.