Gaffney: Will US Lawmakers Prohibit Female Genital Mutilation?

by Christopher W. Holton The New York Times reported yesterday that a lawmaker in the United Kingdom singlehandedly blocked legislation that would have strengthened Britain’s existing prohibition on female genital mutilation. Deplorable as this Member of Parliament’s action is, at least it’s still illegal in the UK to mutilate girls and women’s genitalia. Unfortunately,…

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C-SPAN Video: International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

posted by Christopher W. Holton Congressman Scott Perry took to the House floor to condemn the practice and introduced a resolution calling for international efforts to end FGM worldwide. FGM is a deeply rooted cultural practice, impacting more than 200 million women worldwide. It’s routinely performed on girls from infancy…

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Medscape: Female Genital Mutilation: Why Are Doctors Silent?

posted by Christopher Holton Ranit Mishori, MD, MHS A federal judge in Michigan recently ruled that a federal ban on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) was unconstitutional. Charges against two local doctors accused of performing the procedure on young girls were dismissed. Other charges are still pending against one of the doctors…

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America’s new problem with female genital mutilation

posted by Christopher Holton In November, a district judge in Michigan ruled that the federal FGM law was unconstitutional. As a result, Elizabeth Yore of End FGM Today pointed out that the 23 states without laws against the procedure will become safe harbors for mutilators. “Make no mistake, people who are engaging in FGM…

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27 States Must Strengthen Their Female Genital Mutilation Laws in 2019

Criminalizing FGM Is an Important First Step, But Laws Must Be Tougher Now Without Federal Protections for Women and Girls WASHINGTON, D.C.—Twenty-seven states across the nation have instituted their own laws that criminalize the barbaric procedure of female genital mutilation (FGM), which is performed on girls as young as 7 years…

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Richard Kirk: Does the Commerce Clause Protect Female Genital Mutilation?

Three weeks ago U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman declared that the twenty-two-year-old federal law banning female genital mutilation was unconstitutional.  This ruling took Dr. Jumana Nagarwala and seven others off the legal hook for allegedly “circumcising” the genitals of nine girls from Michigan and two adjacent states, girls who were…

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L.A. Times: If a federal ban on female genital mutilation is unconstitutional, all 50 states should ban the barbaric practice

Excerpts and link… Despite a worldwide campaign to stop the brutal practice of female genital cutting, it persists in communities across the globe, and especially in Africa and some Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Generally performed on girls under the age of 15, the procedure involves the removal of the…

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The ‘Unconstitutional’ Federal Law to Protect Girls from Female Genital Mutilation Can Be Fixed

Judge’s Recent Ruling Leaves Women and Girls in 23 States at Grave Risk, But the Senate Can Act on the House’s SAFE Act  WASHINGTON, D.C.—Advocates for the more than a half million girls and woman in the U.S. who are at risk for female genital mutilation (FGM) were saddened but…

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Why the U.S. ban on female genital mutilation was ruled unconstitutional

The first federal charges of female genital mutilation have been dismissed by a federal judge, whose ruling also declared the U.S. law banning the practice unconstitutional. In his 28-page decision, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman said Congress “overstepped its bounds” in prohibiting the practice in 1996, adding that FGM is…

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