Ritual Mutilation of Women

“…It is degrading. And it is a violation of the physical integrity of a woman’s body, leaving a lifetime of physical and emotional scars.” – Hillary Clinton, in China, Sept 1995.

According to the World Health Organization:

Female genital mutilation (FGM) includes procedures that intentionally alter or injure female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

The procedure has no health benefits for girls and women.

Procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later, potential childbirth complications and newborn deaths.

An estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of FGM.

It is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15 years.

In Africa an estimated 92 million girls from 10 years of age and above have undergone FGM.

FGM is internationally recognized as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.

It is very difficult for meet to look at that drawing, read the accompanying information, then think about how the American Academy of Pediatrics has trivialized this horrible form of torture to an acronym: FGC (Female Genital Cutting). I might add the drawing came from their site and there’s more information and as well as more gruesome drawings. There is a long list of all the accompanying health and emotional problems that this act of violence causes its victims.

The AAP’s stated position for GPC (such a almost harmless sounding name) is:

Immigrants in the United States from areas in which FGC is common may have daughters who have undergone a ritual genital procedure or may request that such a procedure be performed by a physician. The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that pediatricians and pediatric surgical specialists should be aware that this practice has life-threatening health risks for children and women. The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes all types of female genital cutting that pose risks of physical or psychological harm, counsels its members not to perform such procedures, recommends that its members actively seek to dissuade families from carrying out harmful forms of FGC, and urges its members to provide patients and their parents with compassionate education about the harms of FGC while remaining sensitive to the cultural and religious reasons that motivate parents to seek this procedure for their daughters.

How about just calling the police and having the girl removed from the people who want to torture her? Don’t they have a legal obligation to report child abuse?