Arizona lawmaker seeks state law against FGM, dismisses MGM as a "cleanliness" issue

Link here. Excerpt:

'Calling the practice a “war on women,” a female legislator wants to make what’s been called “female circumcision” a state crime.
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Her legislation would make a felon [sic] of anyone who not only performs the procedure on a girl younger than 18 but also anyone who tries to take a girl out of Arizona to have that done. SB 1342 would carry a presumptive prison term of seven years for a first offense and nearly 16 years for someone with two or more prior felony convictions.

And the measure, set for debate today before the Senate Judiciary Committee, includes a mandatory fine of at least $25,000.
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Burges said any comparison of the practice with more routine male circumcision, a practice mandated under Jewish law, is invalid.

“That usually is for cleanliness issues,” she said. “This is not.”

A 1996 federal law already makes the practice illegal when performed in the United States. But it took until last year for Congress to include a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act to make it a crime to take a girl to another country to have the procedure done.

Nearly two dozen other states already have such laws.'