New legislation signed into law by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Tuesday makes female genital mutilation a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The laws apply both to doctors who conduct the procedure and parents who transport a child to undergo it. "Those who commit these horrendous crimes should be held accountable for their actions, and these bills stiffen the penalties for offenders while providing additional support to victims," Gov. Snyder said in a statement. "This legislation is an important step toward eliminating this despicable practice in Michigan while empowering victims to find healing and justice."
The governor also signed a bill allowing for a health professional's license or registration to be revoked if he or she is convicted of female genital mutilation.
Michigan is the 26th state to ban the practice; the state laws go into effect in October. The practice was banned in the United States in 1996, but Michigan's laws impose harsher penalties than the federal law. The package of bills comes amid the federal criminal trial of an emergency room doctor in Michigan, Jumana Nagarwala, charged with performing the procedure on multiple girls at a clinic in suburban Detroit. The Department of Justice says it believes the case is the first to be brought under the federal law. Another doctor and his wife are also charged in the case, the AP reports.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Friday July 14 2017, @04:32PM (7 children)
And the most maddening part of it is that there's absolutely no medical benefit to doing it. So it's a self-perpetuating peer pressure thing for entirely cosmetic and cultural morality reasons. Apparently somebody at some point said, "Hey, let's take a knife to that. Just because." But of course there are a variety of medical risks to doing it.
According to Wikipedia 97 percent of women in Egypt in 1985 were getting it.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 14 2017, @04:38PM (6 children)
Women, or children?
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Friday July 14 2017, @06:31PM (5 children)
Let's say children, and agree not to quibble about the age of majority in Egypt (emphasis mine):
From the Wikipedia entry on female genital mutilation [wikipedia.org].
And here's a little bit more about the data:
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Friday July 14 2017, @06:40PM (4 children)
I would never have guessed it was that prevalent in Egypt. Holy shit.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FGM_prevalence_UNICEF_2016.svg [wikimedia.org]
2016:
(don't emulate) Somalia 98%
Djibouti (home of the foreign militaries) 93%
Egypt 87%
Sudan 87%
Yemen 19%
Iraq 8%
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by KiloByte on Friday July 14 2017, @09:40PM (2 children)
And MGM in United States: 71% [nih.gov], for boys born in the 70's: 91%.
You can expect a fourth-world hellhole like Somalia to cut little kids' genitalia, but such barbarous practice in a supposedly civilized country is unforgivable.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Saturday July 15 2017, @05:15PM (1 child)
So, the figures for genital mutilation should be:-
Somalia: 49%
Djibouti: 46%
Egypt: 43%
Sudan: 43%
USA: 35%
Yemen: 9%
Iraq: 4%
1702845791×2
(Score: 3, Informative) by KiloByte on Sunday July 16 2017, @01:57AM
Somalia also mutilates 93% of men, so total genital mutilation is 95.5% (gender population ratio in Somalia is roughly balanced).
Among these countries, Sudan is the only outlier with "only" 47% MGM, the rest are in 90%s.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday July 15 2017, @01:50PM
> (don't emulate) Somalia 98%
> Djibouti (home of the foreign militaries) 93%
> Egypt 87%
> Sudan 87%
> Yemen 19%
> Iraq 8%
hmmm this is not the chart they picked when deciding where to export democracy to.
Account abandoned.