Connecticut: Bill Prohibiting Female Genital Mutilation Dies in State Senate

Why is this only in a letter to the editor? It should be front-page news in every newspaper in the country.

When we went to Columbia University for our video series, we asked students if Planned Parenthood should fund female genital mutilation. The overwhelming response was yes. That should frighten every rational human in America.

Any society that tolerates the deliberate mutilation of women and girls can no longer call itself part of the civilized world.

Where are the feminists? What a phony movement.

Dissemblers and deceivers claim that FGM is cultural phenomenon, not religious. FGM is an Islamic cultural phenomenon. FGM is found only within and adjacent to Muslim communities. (source: Gerry Mackie, “Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account,” American Sociological Review).

Unlike male circumcision, female genital mutilation has no health benefits for girls and women.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) involves partial or total removal of the clitoris, causing injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

Female genital mutilation removes all possibility of sexual pleasure. It is the worst kind of misogyny.

Procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.
More than 200 million girls and women alive today have been cut in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, where FGM is concentrated.

FGM is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15.

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

“A Law Against Female Genital Mutilation,” by Kristine Cheruk, Hartford Courant Letters to the Editor, August 13, 2018 (thanks to Creeping Sharia):

An important bill died in the legislature this year, “An Act Prohibiting Female Genital Mutilation.” Senate Bill 190 would have made it a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, to perform female genital mutilation on a person under 18.

FGM is outlawed federally, and 26 other states in the United States also ban it. Connecticut needs to join them to put this terrible practice on the radar of schools, clinics, courts and police. Connecticut lawmakers need a zero-tolerance law banning FGM to protect young women and girls.

FGM is a barbaric procedure, affecting up to 140 million women and girls worldwide. Alarmingly, the Population Reference Bureau indicates that 2,658 women and girls are at risk in Connecticut.

FGM is a human rights violation and a terrible crime against girls and women. The time is now to prevent FGM and stand with victims.

Kristine Cheruk, Cheshire

The writer is a registered nurse.