Female genital mutilation (FGM) isn't someone else's problem. It has come to America.
Female genital mutilation is something we all must be concerned about.
Not only for the victims in foreign countries.
Hundreds of thousands of women and girls in America are in danger of FGM.
The world is waking up to the reality of mutilating women and girls. The United Nations has designated February 6 as the Day of Zero Tolerance of FGM, and is in Phase III of eradicating the practice worldwide.
The movement to ban FGM is picking up among state legislatures across America.
EndFGMtoday.com shows what you can do to help.
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…
Congressional Law Fails to Reach Female Genital Mutilation
posted by Christopher W. Holton by Phyllis Chesler https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2018/12/05/congressional-law-fails-to-reach-female-genital-mutilation/ On November 20, 2018, the United States District Court in Michigan ruled that the federal law which criminalized Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) more than twenty years ago is “unconstitutional”, and cannot be used to prosecute the doctors and mothers of the very…
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…
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…
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…
Genital mutilation must be banned
A long-standing U.S. ban on the practice was struck down. Dozens of countries have enacted laws against female genital cutting, a procedure in which parts of young girls’ genitalia are surgically altered or removed for nonmedical reasons. For more than 20 years, the United States was one of them. That…
With female genital mutilation ban gone, we need new legislation to protect at-risk girls
Op Ed in USA Today from Jim Sensenbrenner 500,000 girls in the U.S. are at risk of female genital mutilation. With a ban on the practice struck down, we need new legislation to protect them. For more than two decades, underage girls in this country have been federally protected from…
Female genital mutilation cases more than double in a year in UK
The number of girls in England who have experienced or are believed to be at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) has more than doubled in a year, according to assessments by council social workers. Analysis of government figures shows that FGM featured in 1,960 social work assessments in 2017-18…
‘This is what it’s like to pee after female genital mutilation’
Some 200 million women and girls across 30 countries have been affected by female genital mutilation (FGM). But how do survivors live with the pain of peeing, periods and childbirth? “The first time you notice your physicality has changed is your pee,” says Hibo Wardere. “An open wound rubbed with…
Anatomy of female genital mutilation
The world could put a stop to female genital mutilation (FGM) within a generation, international leaders and campaigners say. (This report contains graphic descriptions of the practices involved). So what is FGM, and why is it still being carried out on millions of women and girls around the world? https://www.bbc.com/news/health-27188190…