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posted by martyb on Friday July 14 2017, @03:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the cut-it-out! dept.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/12/536863961/michigan-laws-will-increase-penalties-for-performing-female-genital-mutilation

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.


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 14 2017, @10:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 14 2017, @10:32PM (#539376)

    Also, from the link:

    Additionally, a ban on neonatal male circumcision denies religious freedoms to Jewish and Muslim parents, which would be potentially unconstitutional.

    It actually brings up religious freedom arguments about MGM, and this is a medical site! That is frankly unbelievable, because their arguments should be entirely based on the medical benefits of MGM. Although those arguments are ultimately unconvincing to me, at least they make some amount of sense. Arguing that you have the freedom to surgically alter other people's bodies because of your religion beggars belief. Following that logic, you could do anything (ritual sacrifice, cutting off other people's arms) in the name of your religion and any attempt to stop you would violate your rights. The reality is that one's religion doesn't give one the right to violate other people's rights. The people who use religious-based arguments for genital mutilation would probably engage in special pleading and act as if the logic magically ends with things like genital mutilation, but they are simply being inconsistent. No one should ever bring up religious-based arguments, personal preference arguments, or general parental choice arguments in an attempt to argue for genital mutilation, because they make absolutely no sense.

    The most stunning thing to me is that it was actually brought up on a site like that at all.

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