State of Arizona Senate approves bill banning female circumcision

Submitted by Mastodon on Thu, 2014-02-27 04:26

Story here.

'The Arizona Senate has approved a bill outlawing female genital mutilation that's known as female circumcision.

The Senate unanimously approved the bill on Monday. The bill bars genital mutilation on girls under 18 and would make a first-time violation and conviction punishable by five to 14 years in prison and a minimum $25,000 fine.

Bill sponsor Republican Sen. Judy Burges of Sun City West says female genital mutilation is a problem that's beginning to appear in the United States.

The bill will now go the House of Representatives.'

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Comments

Good on them! But they only got the job half done. It's a start. Like other desperately-needed updates to the defense of human and civil rights, at least here in the US, changes that lawmakers were either too myopic, bigoted, or scared to implement have often had to come from the quills of judicial officials. At this point while I believe anything's possible, I am not holding out too much hope for any significantly large political entity in the US passing a law banning *all* forms of infant genital mutilation (this means protecting males, too), or indeed any kind of encouraged or coerced (to any degree) genital mutilation of anyone at any age. Instead, the best thing I think we can hope for, and then maybe the dam will break, is if a courageous judge somewhere decides to say "Enough!" and to hell with winning the next election or appointment. Then on the inevitable appeals, subsequent judges must likewise screw up the courage to say, "Yes, he/she got it right -- finally."

When? Dunno. Hope soon.

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Submitted by Matt on Fri, 2014-02-28 05:32